They named their organization Christopher Street West, "as ambiguous as we could be." But Rev. 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 of the United States held a march in Los Angeles on Jand a march and 'Gay-in' in San Francisco. As LGBT rights activist Tom Limoncelli put it, "The next time someone asks you why LGBT Pride marches exist or why Pride Month is June tell them 'A bisexual woman named Brenda Howard thought it should be.'" Craig Schoonmaker are credited with popularizing the word "Pride" to describe these festivities. Additionally, Howard along with fellow LGBT Activists Robert A.
Howard also originated the idea for a week-long series of events around Pride Day which became the genesis of the annual LGBT Pride celebrations that are now held around the world every June. īrenda Howard is known as the "Mother of Pride", for her work in coordinating the march. With Dick Leitsch's replacement as president of Mattachine NY by " Michael Kotis" in April 1970, opposition to the march by Mattachine ended. Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising, the CSLDUC scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970. Other mainstays of the organizing committee were Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard of GLF.
For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from the national homophile organizations and sponsors, while Sargeant solicited donations via the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer for that organization. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC).
At first there was difficulty getting some of the major 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 Bleecker Street. Members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell's group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN).
Īll attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for Mattachine Society of New York City, which abstained. 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. That the Annual Reminder, in order to be more relevant, reach a greater number of people, and encompass the ideas and ideals of the larger struggle in which we are engaged-that of our fundamental human rights-be moved both in time and location. On November 2, 1969, Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes proposed the first gay pride parade to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in Philadelphia. Main article: LGBT Pride March (New York City)