On Sunday, June 28, 1970, a few thousand people gathered on Christopher Street in Greenwich Village and started walking. They walked 51 blocks. Police said they could march only on the sidewalk. They took the street anyway. Some marchers held hands for the first time in public. By the time they reached Central Park, the line stretched for fifteen blocks behind them. That day was called Christopher Street Liberation Day, and it was the first Pride parade.
The short version
- Christopher Street Liberation Day took place on Sunday, June 28, 1970, exactly one year after the Stonewall riots.
- The New York march went 51 blocks up Sixth Avenue and grew from roughly 2,000 people to at least 5,000 by Central Park.
- Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Linda Rhodes, Brenda Howard, and many other organizers turned the idea into a real march.
- Los Angeles and Chicago marched that same weekend, while San Francisco held a smaller Gay-In.
At a glance
| Date | Sunday, June 28, 1970 |
| Starting point | Christopher Street and Waverly Place in Greenwich Village |
| Route | 51 blocks north up Sixth Avenue to Sheep Meadow in Central Park |
| Turnout | About 2,000 at the start, growing to 5,000 or more |
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$0.00Why the first Pride march happened
The plan took shape five months after Stonewall. In November 1969, gay rights organizers from across the East Coast met in Philadelphia at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations. Craig Rodwell, who ran the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in Greenwich Village, brought a resolution written with his partner Fred Sargeant and fellow activists Ellen Broidy and Linda Rhodes.
The resolution ended the Annual Reminder, a formal picket that the older homophile movement had held every July 4 at Independence Hall since 1965. It also called for something larger: a national demonstration on the last Sunday of June, with cities across the country invited to join. There would be no dress code and no quiet request for tolerance. This would be a march.
That change mattered. The Annual Reminder pickets had put participants in suits and dresses to present respectability. The new organizers wanted a public show of freedom on their own terms. Stonewall had changed what people believed was possible, and Christopher Street Liberation Day gave that new confidence a route, a date, and a crowd.
Brenda Howard and the work behind the day
A march needs permits, flyers, a sound system, a route, and people willing to handle the details. In New York, bisexual activist Brenda Howard did much of that work. She was active with the Gay Liberation Front and later the Gay Activists Alliance. She coordinated the first anniversary rally in Washington Square Park and organized the planning committee that became the Christopher Street Liberation Day Umbrella Committee.
Howard also pushed the idea that one day was not enough. Pride should fill a week, then a month. That organizing legacy is why she is remembered as the Mother of Pride. Howard died in 2005, and the title appears on her headstone. Her name belongs beside the better-known figures in this story because public joy rests on practical work that is easy to overlook.
Before the rainbow flag existed, handmade words and the Greek lambda carried the movement's message through the streets.
What happened on June 28, 1970
The day was hot and clear. Marchers gathered outside the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street, where the police raid had begun exactly one year earlier. Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera marched. Craig Rodwell was there too, along with members of gay liberation groups and thousands of people who had never attended an organizing meeting.
Police said the march had to stay on the sidewalk. It tried for the first block. Then the front stepped into Sixth Avenue and kept moving. The route ran 51 blocks from West Fourth Street to Central Park. People watched from windows, applauded, yelled slurs, or left nearby businesses to join the back of the line. By the time the front reached Central Park South, the back was still around Eighth Street.
At Sheep Meadow, marchers held a Gay-In. They sat on blankets, shared food, listened to short speeches, kissed, and spent time together without hiding. The gathering could look like a picnic, but its meaning was sharper. For many participants, it was their first stretch of time being visibly queer in public among thousands of others.
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5,000+ The estimated New York crowd by the time the march reached Central Park, up from roughly 2,000 at the start. |
One recorded chant went, "Two, four, six, eight, gay is just as good as straight." Fred Sargeant included it in his account in The Village Voice the following week. The words sound simple now. In 1970, saying them in public carried real personal and legal risk because same-sex contact was still a crime in most states.
Other cities and the growing timeline
The November 1969 resolution asked gay organizations nationwide to act on the same date. New York was not alone. Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco each marked the anniversary in its own way, which is why more than one city has a valid place in the story of the first Pride parade.
- June 27, 1970About 200 people marched in Chicago from Bughouse Square to the Civic Center.
- June 28, 1970New York held Christopher Street Liberation Day. In Los Angeles, about 1,000 people walked Hollywood Boulevard after Reverend Troy Perry, Morris Kight, and Bob Humphries won a parade permit. San Francisco held a smaller Gay-In at Golden Gate Park's Speedway Meadow that weekend.
- 1972San Francisco's large Pride event began, and Pride gatherings had spread to more U.S. cities.
- 1979The first national March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights drew an estimated 100,000 people.
- 1993The March on Washington drew an estimated 800,000 to 1 million people.
Los Angeles is widely cited as the first permitted Pride parade in U.S. history. Its route ran on Hollywood Boulevard from McCadden Place to Highland Avenue. One float showed a man in a cage beside a sign stating that homosexuality was a crime in 21 states. New York's march was larger and is cited more often as the first, but the honest history leaves room for both claims.
The slogans before the rainbow flag
The 1970 march did not have a rainbow flag. Gilbert Baker would not sew the first one until 1978. Marchers instead carried words painted on cardboard or sewn onto bedsheets. "Out of the Closets, Into the Streets" named visibility as a strategy. "Gay is Good," coined by Frank Kameny in 1968, drew on the Black is Beautiful movement. "Say It Loud, Gay is Proud" echoed James Brown's 1968 song, and "Gay Power" openly adapted the language of Black Power.
Those connections were intentional. A number of the marchers had spent years in civil rights and anti-war organizing. They understood that a slogan could turn a private belief into something a crowd could say together. The language was direct because the day was not asking for a favor. It was announcing a movement.
The modern flag above Stonewall arrived years after the first march, but the route still ties today's celebration to the 1970 protest.
Why it was Liberation Day, not Pride
The original name was Christopher Street Liberation Day. Liberation came from the same political vocabulary as women's liberation and Black liberation, and it made unfinished work part of the name. The word Pride became more common later in the 1970s as organizers in different cities adopted Pride march and Pride parade.
The two words hold different parts of the tradition. Liberation asks what still needs to change. Pride celebrates what people have survived, built, and won. A modern parade can carry both. If you mark the history with a flag, our Pride flag collection includes identity flags alongside the six-stripe rainbow that became widely recognized after 1978.
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Featured flag LGBTQ+ Pride Flag This six-stripe rainbow flag measures 3 by 5 feet and uses double-stitched polyester. Fly it in late June to connect a familiar symbol with the march that came eight years before it. Shop VIP Discount → |
Common mix-ups about the first Pride parade
MIX-UP 01
The first march had rainbow flags.
It did not. Gilbert Baker first sewed the rainbow flag in San Francisco in 1978, eight years after Christopher Street Liberation Day. The 1970 march used handmade banners, signs, and the Greek lambda adopted by the Gay Activists Alliance.
MIX-UP 02
New York held the first permitted parade.
Los Angeles did. Reverend Troy Perry, Morris Kight, and Bob Humphries fought the LAPD for a permit and won. New York's march was bigger, while Los Angeles has the claim to the first permitted Pride parade.
MIX-UP 03
It was called the Pride Parade in 1970.
The name was Christopher Street Liberation Day. Pride became the standard wording gradually as the movement grew later in the 1970s.
The joy was real, but this was still a protest. People were taking public space while laws and workplaces punished them for being openly gay. The march was celebratory because the crowd found one another, and defiant because being there was itself a demand.
Frequently asked questions
When was the first Pride parade?
Sunday, June 28, 1970. It was called Christopher Street Liberation Day and took place in New York City exactly one year after the Stonewall riots. Los Angeles also marched that Sunday, Chicago marched the day before, and San Francisco held a smaller gathering that weekend.
Who organized the first Pride parade?
The Christopher Street Liberation Day Umbrella Committee organized the New York event. Craig Rodwell, Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes wrote the November 1969 resolution calling for it. Bisexual activist Brenda Howard ran rally logistics and is remembered as the Mother of Pride.
Why is Pride in June?
The Stonewall riots happened in late June 1969, and the first march was scheduled for the last Sunday of June 1970 to mark the anniversary. Pride Month follows that calendar choice.
How many people marched in the first Pride parade?
Estimates vary. Roughly 2,000 people started the New York march at Christopher Street. By the time the line reached Central Park, estimates ranged from 5,000 to 10,000, and the line stretched about fifteen blocks.
Was the first Pride parade in New York or Los Angeles?
Both cities marched on June 28, 1970. New York's Christopher Street Liberation Day was larger and is more often called the first Pride parade. Los Angeles held the first permitted parade after Reverend Troy Perry, Morris Kight, and Bob Humphries fought for a permit.
Did the first Pride parade have a rainbow flag?
No. Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag in San Francisco in 1978, eight years after the first march. The 1970 marchers carried handmade banners, picket signs, and the Greek letter lambda.
What was the route of the first New York Pride parade?
It began at Christopher Street and Waverly Place near the Stonewall Inn, then went 51 blocks north up Sixth Avenue. It ended at Sheep Meadow in Central Park, where marchers held a Gay-In.
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Carry the tradition forward Browse Pride flags for your home, your gathering, or the next June march. |
