Vincenz, L., Dir. 1970. Gay and Proud. Theatrical release. New York. Washington, D.C. The Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/2024603228/
Having read and examined this primary source as an educator, this documentary offers students a glimpse into the social, historical, and communal significance that the first official New York City Pride March has for the LGBTQIA+ community. Additionally, this documentary includes interviews with pride march participants as well as footage of onlookers who both supported and opposed the presence of LGBTQIA+ folks being visible and present in the community. These interviews and the footage of supporters and those in opposition can help students better understand the cultural divide and the obstacles that the LGBTQIA+ community face in terms of visibility, equality, and acceptance in American society.
Twenty-first-century students are currently living in an era in which the historical context of the LGBTQIA+ movement can be lost within the commercialization and corporatization of the Pride movement. This short documentary film will help students understand the elements of LGBTQIA+ pride as a celebration that is rooted in protest and the fight for the LGBTQIA+ community’s right to social, cultural, and political equality in the United States of America.
“Gay and Proud” is a twelve-minute documentary recorded on June 28, 1970. It features footage from the first Gay Pride march—a protest and a commemoration of the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Inn Riots of 1969—held in New York City. According to the Library of Congress summary page, this film is a“[d]ocumentary short film featuring one of the earliest gay pride demonstration marches, the first Christopher Street Liberation Day March, held in New York, New York, on June 28, 1970, to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Covering about fifty blocks and drawing just a few thousand participants, it and marches like it held the same year in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles eventually led to hundreds of Pride parades throughout the world in the following decades.”
- How does documentary footage shape our understanding of the first Pride March in New York City?
- What information does a documentary about the first Pride March in New York City teach viewers about the history and celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community?
New York State Next Generation Learning Standards for ELA
11-12R3: In informational texts, analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop. (RI)
- Students can analyze the sequence of events as the documentary unfolds and offer ideas regarding how these interweave and develop, especially in terms of the sequences of the march on the street—with the protest chants and visuals of oppositional people on the street—to the end’s peaceful, communal gathering in the park.
11-12R9: Make connections to other texts, ideas, cultural perspectives, eras, and personal experiences. (RI&RL)
- Students can view this documentary and compare it to other primary source footage of other civil rights demonstrations from the same or different eras. Students can make social, rhetorical, and political connections among these civil rights demonstrations and their own personal or historical/cultural experiences.
- This documentary would pair well with demonstration artifacts and stories from other key elements of Civil Rights movements in the United States. This could pair well with students viewing footage from the 1963 March from Selma to Montgomery—“Bloody Sunday”—or the 1965 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Students can view the footage from the Pride March and from the other famous civil rights marches to see where elements of the movements intersect. They can also analyze the rhetorical elements present in protest signs, interview questions, and interviewee responses.
- This documentary can also serve as a paired text with teaching the Laramie Project to help contextualize anti-LGBTQIA+ violence and the critical role that the first Pride March and the subsequent marches and demonstrations have had in shaping society’s shifting perceptions of the LGBTQIA+ community.
- The video could be challenged for its portrayal of a marginalized group (LGBTQIA+ folks) engaging in civil disobedience and disruption of everyday life. Additionally, those who have personal objections to homosexuality or harbor homophobic and transphobic sentiments may object to having students view the footage of an LGBTQIA+ protest for equal rights.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- PFLAG is “the nation's largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them.” This site can help parents, families, and other community members better understand how to support LGBTQIA+ family members, friends, and community members. https://pflag.org
- History.com provides a great overview of the LGBTQIA+ Pride movement and the history of the first protests and marches that were organized to help members of the LGBTQIA+ community gain equal rights and protection under the law, as well as render support and visibility in “mainstream” American society. https://www.history.com/news/how-activists-plotted-the-first-gay-pride-parades
- “The Second Largest Minority” is a “[d]ocumentary short film featuring one of the early gay rights demonstration marches, the fourth Annual Reminder Day (Reminder Day picket), held at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on July 4, 1968. In voiceover, gay and lesbian demonstrators, including activist Frank Kameny, share their experiences of prejudice and discrimination and advocate for their civil rights.” This film is a short documentary that covers a pre-Stonewall Riot era LGBTQIA+ demonstration in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It can help provide further historical context for the LGBTQIA+ community’s fight for equality. https://www.loc.gov/item/2024603227/
- Jack Baker and Michael McConnell were early activists for gay rights, and this photograph from 1970 will help contextualize the length of the fight for gay rights in America, and it will also serve as a cornerstone for images of two men fighting to be together. This picture was taken about six months after the Stonewall Riots in New York.
- The nycpride.org website provides a thorough history of the LGBTQIA+ community in New York City. It includes a timeline of key moments for the LGBTQIA+ community, photographs, and other artifacts from the LGBTQIA+ community. https://www.nycpride.org/about-pride/our-history
- The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project website provides background information, photographs, and archived video footage of the first LGBTQIA+ Pride March in New York City.