New York City Pride March LGBT culture in New York City

the annual new york city pride march traverses southward down fifth avenue , ends @ greenwich village. new york city pride march rivals sao paulo gay pride parade largest pride parade in world, attracting tens of thousands of participants , millions of sidewalk spectators each june. march passes site of stonewall inn on christopher street, location of 1969 police raid launched modern lgbt rights movement.

the march, rally, pridefest (the festival), , dance on pier main events of pride week in new york city lgbt pride week. since 1984, heritage of pride (hop) has been producer , organizer of pride events in new york city.

history of new york city pride parade

early on morning of saturday, 28 june 1969, gay (lgbt) individuals rioted following police raid on stonewall inn, gay bar @ 53 christopher street, in west village of lower manhattan. riot , further protests , rioting on following nights watershed moment in modern lgbt rights movement , impetus organizing lgbt pride marches on larger public scale.

on november 2, 1969, craig rodwell, partner fred sargeant, ellen broidy, , linda rhodes proposed first pride march held in new york city way of resolution @ eastern regional conference of homophile organizations (ercho) meeting in philadelphia.

that annual reminder, in order more relevant, reach greater number of people, , encompass ideas , ideals of larger struggle in engaged-that of our fundamental human rights-be moved both in time , location.

we propose demonstration held annually on last saturday in june in new york city commemorate 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on christopher street , demonstration called christopher street liberation day. no dress or age regulations shall made demonstration.

we propose contact homophile organizations throughout country , suggest hold parallel demonstrations on day. propose nationwide show of support.

all attendees ercho meeting in philadelphia voted march except mattachine society of new york, abstained. members of gay liberation front (glf) attended meeting , seated guests of rodwell s group, homophile youth movement in neighborhoods (hymn).

meetings organize march began in january @ rodwell s apartment in 350 bleecker street. @ first there difficulty getting of major new york organizations gay activists alliance (gaa) send representatives. craig rodwell , partner fred sargeant, ellen broidy, michael brown, marty nixon, , foster gunnison of mattachine made core group of csld umbrella committee (cslduc). initial funding, gunnison served treasurer , sought donations national homophile organizations , sponsors, while sargeant solicited donations via oscar wilde memorial bookshop customer mailing list , nixon worked gain financial support glf in position treasurer organization. other mainstays of organizing committee judy miller, jack waluska, steve gerrie , brenda howard of glf. believing more people turn out march on sunday, , mark date of start of stonewall uprising, cslduc scheduled date first march sunday, june 28, 1970. dick leitsch s replacement president of mattachine ny michael kotis in april, 1970, opposition march mattachine ended.

brenda howard known mother of pride , work in coordinating march. howard originated idea week-long series of events around pride day became genesis of annual lgbt pride celebrations held around world every june. additionally, howard along fellow lgbt activists robert a. martin (aka donny punk) , l. craig schoonmaker credited popularizing word pride describe these festivities. lgbt rights activist tom limoncelli put it, next time asks why lgbt pride marches exist or why [lgbt] pride month june tell them bisexual woman named brenda howard thought should be.

christopher street liberation day on june 28, 1970 marked first anniversary of stonewall riots assembly on christopher street , first lgbt pride march in u.s. history, covering 51 blocks central park. march took less half scheduled time due excitement, due wariness walking through city gay banners , signs. although parade permit delivered 2 hours before start of march, marchers encountered little resistance onlookers. new york times reported (on front page) marchers took entire street 15 city blocks. reporting village voice positive, describing out-front resistance grew out of police raid on stonewall inn 1 year ago .

the 2017 new york city pride parade first in history scheduled broadcast , streamed live.