by Evelyn Bailey
PRIDE – the quality or state of being proud: as a: inordinate self-esteem b: a reasonable or justifiable self-respect c: delight or elation arising from some act, possession, or relationship <parental pride>
This definition captures the feeling the Rochester Community has openly proclaimed and enjoyed for many years. Our growing sense of who we are individually and as a community has moved us to be out and proud. We take great pride in our community’s accomplishments in its struggle for equal rights under the law and the freedom to be who we are.
This month we celebrate 38 years of PRIDE in a 3 day event filled weekend. On Saturday, July 19th, the Rochester gay community will hold its 19th Annual Gay Pride Parade. This year their will be over 300 Gay Pride Parades and Celebrations throughout the world.
The Gay Pride March began July 2, 1969, in New York City three days after the Stonewall Inn was raided. Police were summoned for a third time in less than a week, to quell a hostile crowd of nearly 500 protesters chanting gay pride slogans and marching down Christopher Street. According to one eyewitness, the police, armed with nightsticks, seem bent on massive retaliation: “At one point, Seventh Avenue … looked like a battlefield in Vietnam. Young people, many of them queens, were lying on the sidewalk, bleeding from the head, face, mouth and even the eyes. Others were nursing bruised and often bleeding arms, legs, backs, and necks.”
The Gay Pride Parade began in June, 1970 when gay men and women marched in New York City to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. This was first called 'Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day' and was the first Gay Pride Parade in New York City.
A mimeographed circular was passed out at the Christopher Street Liberation Day March and read as follows:
"Welcome to the second annual birthday celebration of the Gay Liberation Movement. We are united today through the strength of our love for each other, in affirming our pride in ourselves and in our lifestyle. As individuals we may have political and social differences; as members of the Gay Community we are here today united as Sisters and Brothers. This is the commitment that drives us together today.
"We cannot let anything change or spoil the joy this day means to us each year. Degrading remarks by hecklers only expose them, and try to make us defend what we know already: that we are Gay and Proud. On this day your Sisters and Brothers are the people who deserve your attention and respect.
"The Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee has met with New York City Officials and Police, and has received their cooperation to ensure an orderly, peaceful, and successful March. Gay Sisters and Brothers have been trained to act as Coordinators and will help you with any problems or questions you may have throughout the day. They are wearing bright orange headbands or arm bands, and have full information about medical and legal aid, march course, etc…
"On this day, there are Christopher Street Liberation Day Marches taking place in more than 20 cities around the world. We are each of us participating in a joyous and historic international celebration of love and pride.
"THE CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY COMMITTEE"
In June 1989, 19 years later, in Rochester, New York, the First Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Pride Parade, as it was called back then, took place. Hundreds of gay Rochestarians marched down Main Street, up Exchange Street, up Broad Street by the War Memorial to Manhattan Square Park for a rally. For the first time in Rochester, Sisters and Brothers marched shoulder to shoulder with church groups, service organizations, and political leaders. Young and old joined hands, and shouted.
We had peacekeepers to be a buffer between those marching and the homophobic heckling crowds that lined the parade route screaming anti gay statements, and carrying anti gay slogans. We marched with pride carrying our banners, holding our signs and singing – “We are a gentle loving people, and we are singing, singing for our lives!”
Today, we are still singing for our lives to be equal under the law and to be free to be who we are any where, any place, any time. We are closer to that reality in 2008 than ever before. This year, take a moment to look in the mirror and tell yourself, “I am proud of you. I like what I see and I love who I am.”
Be Gay! Be Out! Be You! Celebrate with PRIDE!
Photo Credit: The Gay Militants,
jacket photograph of the June 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day
Celebration in Central Park by Diana Davies/Bethel Aency.