Pride's raucous parades began as suit-and-tie protests called the 'Annual Reminder'

[DonViejo]

Gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, the second man in line holding a sign, insisted his protesters wear suits. This was taken outside the White House in 1965. (UPI)


By Perry Stein June 10 at 12:20 PM

The first time, they marched in suits.

Gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, who was always more staid Washington than bohemian Greenwich Village, organized an annual Fourth of July demonstration in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia starting in 1964.

A few dozen people attended the “Annual Reminder” demonstration each year. Under Kameny’s direction, they all wore business attire and carried signs with sedate messages such as “Homosexuals deserve equal empowerment.”

Kameny, a Harvard PhD who lived in the nation’s capital until his death in 2011, was ousted from his federal government job in 1957 because of his homosexuality. He led demonstrations in Washington, New York and Philadelphia, and in the 1960s his message was always more about gays and lesbians being accepted in the eyes of the law rather than the more edgy “gay power” message. But today, the celebratory and sometimes raucous international Pride celebrations in June, which attract hundreds of thousands of people in cities worldwide, can be traced back to Kameny’s modest and decorous demonstrations in Philadelphia.

“The Annual Reminder was meant to remind the nation on its birthday of the promise of rights, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that had been denied to gay people,” said George Chauncey, a history professor at Yale University who has written extensively about LGBTQ history.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/06/11/from-restrained-to-radical-to-raucous-a-history-of-pride-celebrations-in-the-u-s/

[luvMIdog]

1. a great photo of courage