Pride Started As a Protest - Not a Parade

[HOST] This weekend is the 50th anniversary of the Pride Parade - that celebration of LGBTQ identity known for its floats and feathers and corporate sponsors. It's virtual this year, like so much else during COVID19. But WNYC's Jennifer Vanasco says the first one didn't have celebrities or inspiring words - instead, it was a protest march.

[REPORTER] Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Those four days of demonstrations against police violence and anti-gay discrimination in 1969 might sound pretty familiar given today's headlines. The NYPD used bully clubs against protesters - in response, police had their tires slashed. Businesses endured property damage. But Stonewall wasn't the only raid against gay and lesbian New Yorkers of the era.

[KARLA JAY] There were raids before the Stonewall and there were raids after the Stonewall. 
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[REPORTER] That's Karla Jay. She was the first woman to chair the Gay Liberation Front and a retired gender studies professor. She says, within a few days of Stonewall, people started organizing, forming a new kind of movement that wasn't polite - that wouldn't stay in the shadows. She spoke to WNYC last year.

[KARLA JAY]  We set out to create a march on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. And if we hadn't done that, nobody would remember the Stonewall today.

[REPORTER] The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day march started in Greenwhich Village. It was June 28th, 1970, around 2 o'clock. As they gathered, the marchers were few - and brave. There had been bomb threats. They started walking...very briskly. Martin Boyce was there. He says - afterwards they jokingly called it not the first march, but "the first run."

[MARTIN BOYCE]  I was worried about being single file because I just watched a program on National Geographic about wildebeests. I saw the ones on the side get picked off, so I thought I would stay in the middle. But there was no middle.

[REPORTER] In archival footage, the marchers look...determined. Many wore long-sleeved, button down shirts. They carried red, purple and yellow banners up Christopher Street - there was no rainbow flag yet. And they had signs on tall wood sticks that said things like, "Gay Pride." And "I am a lesbian and I am beautiful."

Boyce says when they hit 6th Avenue - other people started joining in.

[MARTIN BOYCE]  All of a sudden I realized in the excitement, I was no longer alone. There were people on my left, people on my right, gays were joining us with every three blocks.

[REPORTER] Gay activists Lilli Vincenz and Cliff Witt produced a documentary of that day, interviewing people anonymously. It's in the collection of the Library of Congress and you can find it on YouTube.

[INTERVIEWER] Can you tell me what you think about the homophile movement?

[PARADE OBSERVER]  I think it's great. I think it's really dynamite. And I think the only way to achieve it is through force and marches like this. 

[REPORTER] The marchers started to relax and enjoy themselves. They held hands. They chanted. They said things like, "Say it loud, gay is proud."

And when the marchers got to Central Park?  There were thousands of them.

There were no speakers. The organizers hadn’t really thought they’d MAKE it all the way to the park. Instead - they had a "gay-in. There was casual folk music. Men rested on their lovers' stomachs. Women leaned on their partners' shoulders. They played games like Red Rover. There was a kissing contest. The relaxed happiness has some of the feel of Pride today.

[VICTORIA CRUZ ] It was liberating, are you kidding?

[REPORTER] Victoria Cruz has pictures from Central Park that day. It was the first time she had publicly declared her identity like that - she's transgender - but she says - she wasn't scared.

[VICTORIA CRUZ] I felt so liberated, so I felt like, you know, here I am in grade school saying the pledge of allegiance to the flag and after Stonewall I felt freedom and justice for all. And that freedom and justice included me so I was kind of proud. 

[REPORTER] That evening, a similar march was held in Los Angeles. The following year came a march in Boston, and soon Washington DC, London, Tel Aviv - and 50 years later - everywhere. Jennifer Vanasco, WNYC news.