IN JUNE 2010, the GLBT community is observing its 40th year of Pride. The first annual celebration of Gay Pride took place in New York a year after the Stonewall Riots of June 1969. Movement pioneer Craig Rodwell, who founded the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, took the lead in organizing the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee (csldc) to commemorate the first anniversary of Stonewall. The celebration centered on the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade, held in New York on June 28, 1970. Although they could not have known it at the time, the 1970 march would give rise to “GLBT Pride” worldwide, which millions celebrate each year.
One member of the csldc, Craig Schoonmaker, offers insight into how this international phenomenon got its start. Since most gay bars were mafia-owned at the time, the csldc planned a weekend festival to go along with the parade, to give both New Yorkers and out-of-towners entertainment alternatives: dances, coffeehouse socials, college mixers, poetry readings, discussion groups, theater, and performance art. Rodwell suggested calling the activities “Gay Power Weekend.” The name had resonance: “Gay Power” had been Rodwell’s full-throated cry on June 28, 1969, heard throughout Sheridan Square as the first Stonewall Riot was gathering steam. But Schoonmaker, who founded the group “Homosexuals Intransigent” at the City College of New York, thought a more festive title was in order. He proposed calling the bundle of events “Gay Pride Weekend.” The csldc adopted the catchy phrase unanimously and without debate according to Schoonmaker. Why was the term “Pride” so unifying? Although Schoonmaker’s account gives no indication, I have a theory that might explain the choice of name. In 1968, singer James Brown sparked a revolution in consciousness with his hit single, “Say It Loud! I’m Black and I’m Proud!” The Godfather of Soul’s call to self-affirmation was electrifying. The song marked a turning point in the civil rights movement as African-Americans increasingly embraced their cultural distinctiveness. This new ethos turned racism on its head by extolling the black experience as a badge of honor. James Brown’s civil rights anthem would have been very familiar to the members of csldc. Their goal was to spread the liberated consciousness of Stonewall to the oppressed masses of GLBT people trapped in closets and full of fear and self-loathing. The notion that being gay or lesbian was something to be proud of—the opposite of ashamed—encapsulated the defiant spirit of the early gay liberation movement. Although some dispute the link, it’s quite clear that early gay and lesbian activists drew heavily on the experience of the black civil rights movement, which had forged a successful template for a mass movement for equality. It is easy to see why “Pride” eclipsed the clunky phrase “Christopher Street Liberation Day.” In one word, “Pride” captures the essence of gay liberation. It provides a succinct rationale for self-affirmation, fellow-feeling, and community solidarity. Defying homophobia, Pride imparts inner strength that has delivered us from a place beyond hopelessness. Pride vows that “We Shall Overcome” with the flair and panache that embody our distinctive character. The history of GLBT Pride shows how commemorations of the Stonewall Riots needs to be as perpetual as French celebrations of Bastille Day or Jewish observances of Passover. As long as we can build strength by coming together in mutual affirmation, we must demonstrate both how far we have come and how determined we are to achieve our dream of full equality. Yet it is not to Pride parades alone that we can attribute the extraordinary changes of the past forty years. Attending a Pride event is akin to what gay historian Toby Marotta called “cultural activism.” Living openly as an out and proud individual and taking part in gay community life are ways in which everyone can contribute to our collective progress, but there’s more we can do to make the world a more just and equal place. As early Gay Activists Alliance leader Arthur Bell famously remarked, we cannot “dance our way to liberation.” Voting for pro-equality candidates is a start, actively helping to get them elected better still. We need to pressure elected officials to take specific actions with letter-writing campaigns, lobbying efforts, media outreach, and street protests. We need political equality, not just social equality. Political activism is the true pathway “from riots to rights,” and the most fitting way to honor the legacy of Stonewall. Don Gorton is a longtime gay activist and a grand marshal of the 2010 Boston Pride Parade.
