NYC Pride March

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NYC Pride March
Stonewall Inn 5 pride weekend 2016.jpg
The Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village was the site of the June 1969 Stonewall riots. That event in New York City's queer history has served as a touchstone for various social movements, as well as the catalyst for Pride parades around the world. [1] [2] [3]
FrequencyAnnually, last Sunday in June
Location(s)New York City, U.S.
InauguratedJune 28, 1970 (1970-06-28), as part of Christopher Street Liberation Day
Next eventJune 30, 2024 (2024-06-30)
Organized by Heritage of Pride, since 1984
Millions of spectators gather every June for the New York City Pride March, seen here in 2022. NYC Pride March 2022 -i---i- (52176731712).jpg
Millions of spectators gather every June for the New York City Pride March, seen here in 2022.

The NYC Pride March is an annual event celebrating the LGBTQ community in New York City. The largest pride parade in North America and among the largest pride events in the world, the NYC Pride March attracts tens of thousands of participants and millions of sidewalk spectators each June. [4] [5] The parade route through Lower Manhattan traverses south on Fifth Avenue, through Greenwich Village, passing the Stonewall National Monument, [6] site of the June 1969 riots that launched the modern movement for LGBTQ+ rights.

Contents

A central component of NYC Pride observances, the March occurs on the last Sunday in June. [7] An estimated four million attended the parade in 2019, [8] coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, which drew five million visitors to Manhattan on Pride weekend. [9]

Origins

Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people rioted, following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 53 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan. This event, together with further protests and rioting over the following nights, marked a watershed moment in the modern LGBT rights movement and the impetus for organizing LGBT pride marches on a much larger scale. Veterans of the riot formed a group, the Stonewall Veterans Association, which has continued to drive the advancement of LGBT rights from the rioting at the Stonewall Inn, to the present day.

In the weeks following the riots, 500 people gathered for a "Gay Power" demonstration in Washington Square Park, followed by a march to Sheridan Square within the West Village. [10] [11]

On November 2, 1969, Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes proposed an annual march to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in Philadelphia. [12]

We propose that a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration.

We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. We propose a nationwide show of support. [13] [14] [15] [16]

Button promoting the second annual pride march in 1971. Gay-button-Christopher-Street-liberation-day-1971-June-27.jpg
Button promoting the second annual pride march in 1971.

All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for Mattachine Society of New York, which abstained. [13] Members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN). [17]

Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell's apartment in 350 Bleecker Street. [18] At first there was difficulty getting some of the major New York City organizations like Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) to send representatives. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison Jr. of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC). For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from the national homophile organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization. [19] [20] Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard of GLF. [21] Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising, the committee scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970. [22] With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by Michael Kotis in April 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended. [23]

There was little open animosity, and some bystanders applauded when a tall, pretty girl carrying a sign "I am a Lesbian" walked by. The New York Times coverage of Gay Liberation Day, 1970 [24]

Christopher Street Liberation Day on June 28, 1970, marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a march from Sheridan Square, covering the 51 blocks to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. The march took less than half the scheduled time due to excitement, but also due to wariness about walking through the city with gay banners and signs. Although the parade permit was delivered only two hours before the start of the march, participants encountered little resistance from onlookers. [25] The New York Times reported (on the front page) that the march extended for about 15 city blocks. [24] Reporting by The Village Voice was positive, describing "the out-front resistance that grew out of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn one year ago". [26] There was also an assembly on Christopher Street.

Organizers

The first March in 1970 was organized by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee. [27] Since 1984, the parade and related LGBT pride events in New York City have been produced and organized by Heritage of Pride (HOP), a volunteer spearheaded, non-partisan, tax-exempt, non-profit organization. [28] HOP welcomes participation regardless of age, creed, gender, gender identification, HIV status, national origin, physical, mental or developmental ability, race, or religion. HOP does not use qualifiers for participation.

In 2021, NYC Pride organizers announced that uniformed law enforcement would be banned from marching in the parade until 2025, when the ban will be reexamined by committees and the executive board of NYC Pride. [29] [30]

Rainbow striped crosswalk at the corner of 7th Ave. and Christopher St. Pride Crosswalk at Christopher Street and Stonewall National Monument.jpg
Rainbow striped crosswalk at the corner of 7th Ave. and Christopher St.

Broadcast

For many years the march was only available locally to Time Warner Cable customers, via its NY1 news channel. In 2017 WABC-TV broadcast the NYC LGBT Pride March live for the first time regionally, and made the stream available to all parts of the globe where such content is accessible. [31] [32] WABC-TV continues to broadcast the first three hours of each years march (which has had an actual run time over nine hours in 2017 and 2018). Both the 2017 and 2018 broadcasts were Emmy nominated programs. In 2022, the WABC-TV broadcast was also available via streaming from ABC News Live and Hulu.

Schisms

Over the course of five decades, various groups have accused the NYC Pride March of losing its political, activist roots and becoming a venue for corporate pinkwashing, rainbow capitalism, and assimilation of queer identities. [33] Such critiques have given rise to various independent events conducted without permits or police. Since 1993 the NYC Dyke March has been held annually on the Saturday prior. [34] Since 1994 the New York City Drag March has been held annually on the Friday prior; it began as a protest against the ban on leather and drag during the 25th anniversary of Stonewall. [35] [36] Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Stonewall in 2019, the Reclaim Pride Coalition organized the first Queer Liberation March, held on Sunday morning, hours before the NYC Pride parade. [37] [38]

Size

The first march, in 1970, was front-page news in The New York Times reporting the march extended for about fifteen city blocks. [24] The march had thousands of participants with organizers "who said variously 3,000 and 5,000 and even 20,000." [24] The variance could be due, in part, that although the march started with over a dozen homosexual and feminist contingents, parade spectators were encouraged to join the procession. [24] Currently, Heritage of Pride requires preregistration of marchers, and sets up barricades along the entire route discouraging the practice. [39]

Although estimating crowd size is an imprecise science, the NYC March is consistently considered the largest Pride parade in the U.S., with 2.1 million people in 2015, and 2.5 million in 2016. [40] In 2018, attendance was estimated around two million. [41] In 2019, as part of Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC, up to five million people took part over the final weekend of the celebrations, [42] [43] with an estimated four million in attendance at the parade. [8] [44] The twelve-hour parade included 150,000 pre-registered participants among 695 groups. [45] It was the largest parade of any kind in the city's history and four times as large as the annual Times Square Ball on New Year's Eve. [46]

Grand marshals

2023

Moment during the 2022 NYC Pride march. NYC Pride March 2022 -i---i- (52178251345).jpg
Moment during the 2022 NYC Pride march.

2022

2019: Stonewall 50

2018

2017

2016

Moment during the 2015 NYC Pride march. Pride Parade New York June 28, 2015 8.jpg
Moment during the 2015 NYC Pride march.

2015

2014

2013

2012

Moment during the 2011 NYC Pride march. New York Gay Pride 2011.jpg
Moment during the 2011 NYC Pride march.

2011

2010

2009: Stonewall 40

2009 marked the occasion of the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City. Accordingly, HOP in conjunction with NYC local government promoted the event for people from around the world to attend. Grand Marshals that year were:

2008

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stonewall riots</span> 1969 spontaneous uprising for gay & LGBT rights in New York City

The Stonewall riots, also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall, were a series of protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Patrons of the Stonewall, other Village lesbian and gay bars, and neighborhood street people fought back when the police became violent. The riots are widely considered the watershed event that transformed the gay liberation movement and the twentieth-century fight for LGBT rights in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pride parade</span> LGBTQ celebration event

A pride parade is an event celebrating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) social and self-acceptance, achievements, legal rights, and pride. The events sometimes also serve as demonstrations for legal rights such as same-sex marriage. Most occur annually throughout the Western world, while some take place every June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York City, a pivotal moment in modern LGBT social movements. The parades seek to create community and honor the history of the movement. In 1970, pride and protest marches were held in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco around the first anniversary of Stonewall. The events became annual and grew internationally. In 2019, New York and the world celebrated the largest international Pride celebration in history: Stonewall 50 - WorldPride NYC 2019, produced by Heritage of Pride commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, with five million attending in Manhattan alone.

This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stonewall Inn</span> Gay tavern and monument in New York City

The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBT rights in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay liberation</span> Social and political movement in the 1960s and 70s.

The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s in the Western world, that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride. In the feminist spirit of the personal being political, the most basic form of activism was an emphasis on coming out to family, friends, and colleagues, and living life as an openly lesbian or gay person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heritage of Pride</span>

Heritage of Pride (HOP), doing business as NYC Pride, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that plans and produces the official New York City LGBTQIA+ Pride Week events each June. HOP began working on the events in 1984, taking on the work previously done by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee organizers of the first NYC Pride March in 1970. HOP also took over responsibility for the operations of NYC's Pride Festival and Pride Rally. It was that first march that brought national attention to 1969's Stonewall Riots. The late sixties saw numerous protests and riots across the United States on many social injustices and from general political unrest including the war in Vietnam.

This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT pride</span> Positive stance toward LGBT people

LGBT pride is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to shame and social stigma, is the predominant outlook that bolsters most LGBT rights movements. Pride has lent its name to LGBT-themed organizations, institutes, foundations, book titles, periodicals, a cable TV channel, and the Pride Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Rodwell</span> American gay rights activist

Craig L. Rodwell was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967 - the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors - and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City gay pride demonstration. Rodwell, who was already an activist when he participated in the 1969 Stonewall uprising, is considered by some to be the leading gay rights activist in the early, pre-Stonewall, homophile movement of the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oscar Wilde Bookshop</span> Book store in New York City

The Oscar Wilde Bookshop was a bookstore located in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood that focused on LGBT works. It was founded by Craig Rodwell on November 24, 1967, as the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop. Initially located at 291 Mercer Street, it moved in 1973 to 15 Christopher Street, opposite Gay Street.

The Annual Reminders were a series of early pickets organized by gay organizations, held yearly from 1965 through 1969. The Reminder took place each July 4 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia and were among the earliest LGBT demonstrations in the United States. The events were designed to inform and remind the American people that gay people did not enjoy basic civil rights protections.

New York has a long history of LGBT community building, activism, and culture which extends to the early history of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT culture in New York City</span>

New York City has been described as the gay capital of the world and the central node of the LGBTQ+ sociopolitical ecosystem, and is home to one of the world's largest LGBTQ populations and the most prominent. Brian Silverman, the author of Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day, wrote the city has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs, high-rise buildings, and Broadway theatre". LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". LGBT advocate and entertainer Madonna stated metaphorically, "Anyways, not only is New York City the best place in the world because of the queer people here. Let me tell you something, if you can make it here, then you must be queer."

East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO) was established in January 1962 in Philadelphia, to facilitate cooperation between homophile organizations and outside administrations. Its formative membership included the Mattachine Society chapters in New York and Washington D.C., the Daughters of Bilitis chapter in New York, and the Janus Society in Philadelphia, which met monthly. Philadelphia was chosen to be the host city, due to its central location among all involved parties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queer Liberation March</span> Annual protest march in New York City since 2019

The Queer Liberation March is an annual LGBT protest march in Manhattan, organized by the Reclaim Pride Coalition as an anti-corporate alternative to the NYC Pride March.

Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 was a series of LGBTQ events and celebrations in June 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. It was also the first time WorldPride was held in the United States. Held primarily in the metropolitan New York City area, the theme for the celebrations and educational events was "Millions of moments of Pride." The celebration was the largest LGBTQ event in history, with an official estimate of five million attending Pride weekend in Manhattan alone, including an estimated four million in attendance at the parade. The twelve-hour parade included 150,000 pre-registered participants among 695 groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Sargeant</span> French-American gay rights activist

Frédéric André Sargeant is a French-American gay rights activist and a former lieutenant with the Stamford CT Police Department. He participated in each of the nights of the 1969 Stonewall riots and was one of the four co-founders of the first Gay Pride march in New York City in 1970. He was vice-chairman of the Homophile Youth Movement at the time.

Ellen Broidy is an American gay rights activist. She was one of the proposers and a co-organizer of the first gay pride march.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homophile Action League</span> US LGBT rights organization

The Homophile Action League (HAL) was established in 1968 in Philadelphia as part of the Homophile movement in the United States. The organization advocated for the rights of the LGBT community and served as a predecessor to the Gay Liberation Front.

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