It was a near miracle that the first Christopher Street West Parade in Los Angeles kicked off at all on June 28, 1970. As my friend Jerry Hoose used to say about that year, “we went from the shadows to sunlight.” Today, my original marshal’s badge is on display in the Smithsonian.Įarly member of the Gay Liberation Front and Radicalesbians and co-organizer of the first marches in New York and Los Angeles
Eventually we made it to Central Park, just like we had promised - and us activists transformed a movement from a few ragtag militants to thousand strong. When we reached 23rd Street, I climbed up a pole, looked back and saw a crowd stretch all the way to Christopher Street. As a marshal, I especially had to know how to react and control the marchers if we were attacked. So we held self-defense classes and learned how to protect ourselves. We didn’t have a police permit, so no one knew exactly what would happen - no one knew the type of force that might greet us.
We intended to march from Greenwich Village and up to Central Park. The march was a reflection of us: out, loud and proud. The Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day March was as revolutionary and chaotic as everything we did that first year after the Stonewall riots. Early member of the Gay Liberation Front and marshal of the first Pride march
