Video: Gay and Proud, an Early Gay Pride March in 1970
Footage from one of the first gay pride parades in New York City, held in 1970.
On June 28, 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, a noted gay bar. These raids were common at the time; in fact, it was illegal to serve alcohol to men and women suspected of being homosexual. As the police attempted to make arrests, they got rough. Long-standing tensions boiled over, and a crowd gathered around the police-occupied Stonewall Inn. The confrontation sparked six days of violent protests, known as the Stonewall Riots, and is considered to be a foundational event of the gay rights movement. Pride parades spread from New York across the United States as part of a larger movement to normalize public perceptions of the LGBTQ+ community.
This video, courtesy of the Library of Congress, shows one early gay pride parade held in New York in 1970. After decades of struggle, homosexuality was gradually decriminalized in most states, followed by the expansion of marriage to include LGBTQ+ couples from 2004 on. In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was a constitutional right, declaring it legal in all 50 states. The landmark decision was made possible at least in part by these early activists for gay rights, who weathered discrimination, hatred, and violence to bring greater equality for future generations.
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