I didn’t like that, so proposed gay pride. He says, “ First thought was ‘Gay Power’. He was part of the planning committee for the 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day March. The term “pride” came to be associated with LGBTQIA+ marches because of Craig Schoonmaker. This year, 50 years since Stonewall, over 3 million people will march to proclaim their pride. Known then as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March – named after the street on which Stonewall is located – the parade began on Washington Place between Sheridan Square and Sixth Avenue and moved up Sixth Avenue, ending with a “Gay-In” in Central Park. Stonewall changed the trajectory of LGBTQIA+ rights worldwide.Įxactly a year from that morning – on 28th June, 1970 – world’s first Pride Parade took place in New York City. For the first time, people had risen up against the oppressive anti-gay legal system and the institutions enforcing it. By the next day, over a thousand people had joined the riots. Over 500 people – drag queens, butch lesbians, transgender people, gay men, homeless youth – attacked the New York City Police who were harassing and beating up the queer patrons in the bar. In the early hours of 28th June, 1969, a riot broke out in Stonewall Inn near Manhattan, NYC.
