Ourstory: Pride in the DMV Collection, 26

Ourstory: Pride in the DMV Collection, 26

In May 1972, Washington, DC's GLBT community celebrated its first Pride. The previous two years, gays and lesbians had gone to New York City to celebrate the Stonewall anniversary. In the winter of 1972, the Gay Liberation Front-DC proposed a local celebration, though they scheduled it a month and half before New York's celebration so that people would not have to choose between the events. DC's initial Pride celebration was as much a protest as a celebration, following almost exactly one year after Gay Mayday and the anti-war Mayday demonstrations had closed the streets of the city.

This marked the first public celebration of gay and lesbian pride in Washington DC. Organized by the Gay Liberation Front, the festival drew support from All Souls Church, the Community Bookshop, the Gay Activists Alliance, the Gay People's Alliance of George Washington University, Henry Street (one of the houses of the Awards Club, a local drag organization) and the Metropole Cinema. The principal organizers were Chuck Hall, Bruce Pennington, and Cade Ware.

This collection includes materials from Gay Pride, Capital Pride, DC Black Pride, and other Pride-related festivals and events.

Dardano, Robert. Photographer