WHAT WAS THE FIRST GAY PRIDE PARADE SERIES
This series of events was a turning point for the LGBTQ+ community and marks one of the most significant events leading to the modern gay rights movement. In June of 1969, a group of LGBTQ+ people in New York City rioted following a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar located on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. Major cities like New York, São Paulo and Madrid host some of the largest events in the world with crowds of up to 5 million people. In western nations where LGBTQ+ people are protected and acceptance is high, many pride events have grown in scale, welcoming millions of visitors to their celebrations. Over the past 50 years, pride events, marches and demonstrations have evolved considerably.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST GAY PRIDE PARADE FULL
Although there are still obstacles in achieving full acceptance and protections for the LGBTQ+ community, the progress made just over the past few decades has been significant. Depending on the country or city where the event is being held, the marches and parades often campaign for recognition and acceptance of same-sex marriage, legal protections for couples and families, anti-discrimination laws or trans rights. While the aim of pride day started with a political nature, many cities around the world have such wide acceptance and legal protections that many events have become a celebration of pride for the local LGBTQ+ community. Gay Pride or rather LGBTQ+ pride events (used to be more inclusive), including pride parades and festivals were started in major urban centers to improve the visibility, acceptance and legal protections for LGBTQ+ people living in those communities. The global landscape for LGBTQ+ rights, protections and acceptance varies tremendously by location, with some destinations attracting millions of visitors to their events like Madrid Gay Pride, Sao Paulo Gay Pride or San Francisco Gay Pride, while more than 70 other countries have laws that allow discrimination or persecution of LGBTQ+ people. This has caused widespread divide within the community, with many saying that the Pride march should retain its political legacy and highlight some of the issues affecting LGBTIAQ+ people in South Africa today.The LGBTQ+ rights movement has made tremendous strides over the past few decades and much of the progress in visibility is thanks in part to gay pride parades and marches that have taken place in cities around the world. Under the democratic dispensation, some in the LGBTIAQ+ community felt that Pride should be more celebratory than political. Since the event in 1990, Pride marches have continued to grow in South Africa with each of the nine provinces now hosting a march. Despite this, there was a generally celebratory atmosphere to the parade signified by the chant “out of the closet and into the streets”. There was a strong presence of religious groups with many onlookers describing the march as ‘disgusting’. Marchers feared for their safety, with many wearing masks during the event. I cannot separate the two parts of me into primary or secondary struggles. Addressing the crowd, Simon Nkoli said “I am black and I am gay. The march was part of a broader struggle to decriminalise homosexuality in South African law and to end Apartheid.
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The purpose of the event was not only to demonstrate pride in gay or lesbian identity but also to provide a wider platform for voicing political concerns.
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Speakers at the event included Beverly Ditsie, Simon Nkoli and Justice Edwin Cameron. The march was organised by the Gay and Lesbian Organisation of the Witwatersrand (GLOW) and attracted a crowd of about 800 people. It was the first Pride March on the African continent and acted as both a gay pride event and an anti-Apartheid march. On 13 October 1990, South Africa’s first Lesbian and Gay Pride march was held in Johannesburg.