Gay hippies
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The gathering was beautiful and peaceful before the police came, the homophiles gathered in pride in their identity. It was a cultural revolution, with a lot going on.
On June 27, 1970, a tiny band of hippies and “hair fairies” staged San Francisco’s first Pride celebration: a march on Polk Street, followed on the 28th by a “gay-in” in Golden Gate Park.
The vibe was a little bit of chaos, but it did allow for freedom of expression and time to do our own thing. It contains a day-by-day account of his firing and subsequent actions. The image is ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways, in much the same way life is ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways.
“I hope the book gives viewers a sense of what it was like to walk those streets at that time.
One of these new members was Hibiscus who was still living in the Sutter Street Commune. If it wasn’t for Aids, the spectre of which hangs over my later images, perhaps things would have accelerated much faster.
By 1972, an argument had emerged that would remain central throughout the 1970s and up to the present day: LGBTQ people making ourselves visible in great numbers and in our wide diversity promotes self-acceptance, social respect and positive political change.
The organizers’ interpretations of how to demonstrate those goals by guiding an ever-growing Gay Freedom Day Parade and Festival would vary greatly.
The cover shot, for example, poses a question about what the well-dressed older guy is doing at the parade. This exhibition is best viewed on a desktop.
Since the small march and picnic that marked the debut of San Francisco Pride 50 years ago, organizers and participants have asked themselves, “Why Pride?”
No formal statement was issued that first year, but one activist made clear the purpose of the “beautiful and peaceful” event: In the face of oppression, “homophiles gathered in pride in their identity.”
The organizers' statement for the 1972 Christopher Street West celebration, the first large-scale parade in San Francisco, which drew some 2,000 participants and 15,000 spectators.
Today, a million people or more descend on the city to celebrate every year at the end of June. Waters said, “I was so amazed at the audience which was as shocking as the show. And drag queens with beards reading Lenin.”
Can people read the psychedelic lettering? “Homosexual Freedom / Gay Strike / Picket Mon Thru Fri / 12 till 1 / 320 California Street / Committee for Homosexual Freedom / Come With Us.” I have always wondered what the connection was between the Sutter Street commune, the Free Print Shop, and the Committee for Homosexual Freedom.
Individuals and groups joining in as participants or spectators also would bring their own perspectives on the purposes of the event and its effectiveness as a movement tactic.
Circulated for consideration by the 1978 parade committee and membership, the draft statement at left was adopted unchanged for the published program distributed at the event.
Lesbian movement pioneer Del Martin (1921–2008) used these index cards to give her speech from the stage at San Francisco City Hall at the end of the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade.
Is he out of place, or participating? We opened an art gallery, but only two shows actually made any money, so we mostly sustained ourselves through dumpster diving and other scrounging. They were marking the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, when queers fought back against a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City.
Initially referred to as the Gay Liberation March, then as Christopher Street West, then as Gay Freedom Day, the celebration deployed both frivolity and protest in hopes of initiating a cultural shift in how society viewed LGBTQ people. We can only speculate. There, I joined my brother, and with a few friends formed a small arts commune called The Modern Lovers.
“We were one of the last hippie groups in San Francisco.