Unlike what we see today, the first gay parade was very quiet. Kight received death threats right up to the morning of the parade. parade organizers and participants knew there were risks of violence. The eleventh hour California Supreme Court decision ordered the police commissioner to issue a parade permit citing the “constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.” From the beginning, L.A. That, too, was dismissed when the California Superior Court ordered the police to provide protection as they would for any other group. After the American Civil Liberties Union stepped in, the commission dropped all its requirements but a $1,500 fee for police service. Davis telling him, “As far as I’m concerned, granting a permit to a group of homosexuals to parade down Hollywood Boulevard would be the same as giving a permit to a group of thieves and robbers.” Grudgingly, the Police Commission granted the permit, though there were fees exceeding $1.5 million. Perry recalled the Los Angeles Police Chief Edward M. They named their organization Christopher Street West.” But they had more difficulty with Los Angeles than New York City. But securing a permit from the city was no easy task.
They settled on a parade down Hollywood Boulevard. In Los Angeles, Morris Kight (Gay Liberation Front LA founder), Reverend Troy Perry (Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches founder) and Reverend Bob Humphries (United States Mission founder) gathered to plan a commemoration. On the same weekend gay activist groups on the West Coast held a march in Los Angeles on Jand a march and ‘Gay-in’ in San Francisco. The parade route covered 51 blocks from Christopher Street to Central Park ending in a “Gay-In” in Sheep’s Meadow. Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday they scheduled the date for Sunday, June 28, 1970, the 1st. Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization. In the end Rodwell, Sargeant, and Broidy, along with Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, Brenda Howard of the the Gay Liberation Front and Foster Gunnison of the Mattachine Society made up the core groupįor funding Gunnison sought donations from the national homophile organizations and sponsors, while Rodwell and Sargeant solicited donations via the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list. At first there was major difficulty getting some of New York organizations like Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) to send representatives. Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell’s apartment in 350 Bleeker Street not far from the site of the Stonewall bar. We propose a nationwide show of support.Īll at the meeting in voted in favor of the march except for Mattachine Society of New York City, which abstained.(HYMN).
We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day.
No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration. 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. Using Philadelphia’s smaller Annual Reminder protest which happened every year on the Fourth of July in front of Freedom Hall Rodwell, Sargeant, Broidy, and Rhodes proposed the following to ECHO: On November 2, 1969, just 4 months after the Stonewall riots Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes of the newly formed Gay Liberation Front proposed the first “gay pride parade” which was then called the “CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY MARCH.” to be held in New York City by way of a public resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) which meeting in Philadelphia.