CHRISTOPHER STREET 1979:

This is when the Pride Parade had no floats, no go-go boys, and topless Dykes on Bikes. That would begin to happen in the next two years. It was then a parade of people.  Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered. All ages, sizes, and colors walking and marching side by side together for our rights.

A first person account as told by Fred Sargeant

“Getting everyone together for the Stonewall anniversary march proved to be a challenge. In the fall of 1969, the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations met in Philadelphia. Two women, Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes, were instrumental in getting a resolution for that first march passed. New York Mattachine was the sole holdout.

After months of planning and internal controversy, the Christopher Street Liberation Day Umbrella Committee negotiated with more than a dozen very different gay organizations. One of the largest hurdles was which group would have the honor of heading the march. It was only when Craig and Michael Brown, who’d arranged for those first permits, decided that each group would have one representative was the matter finally settled. Even the question of a chant was endlessly discussed—the winner: “Say it clear, say it loud. Gay is good, gay is proud.” Craig and police brass worked out a glitch over permits for the parade and the post-parade “Gay-In” in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow only moments before the events began.”

Say it clear, say it loud. Gay is good, gay is proud.”

This is our history.  And let us never forget it.