Pride Day 1972

 
 
 

The 1972 Gay Pride declaration was distributed at the sold out Henry Street
Rhinestone Review production at the Marvin Theatreon Tuesday May 2, 1972.

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.

Below are documents from the period.

Pride Discussions     GLF lists workshops and seminars for the Pride week

The Quicksilver Times, one of DC's two underground newspapers  (at 1736 R St. NW--the building would later house the Washington Area Women's Center) carried notices of the 1972 Pride celebration.  The  events calendar for May 5 to 25, 1972 notes

May 5th:    12 noon - Gay Speakers Rally, Lafayette Park: speakers included Dr. George Weinberg and Merle Miller
                   3 pm - Gay student rap session, Community Bookshop, 2028 P St. NW
                   8 pm - Gay poetry reading, Community Bookshop
                   Midnight - free gay movies at the Metropole, 411 L St. NW
May 6th:    12 noon - 6 pm - Community workshops on gay subjects, All Souls Church
                   9 pm - Free Gay Dance & Arts Festival, GAA Community Center, 1213 13th St.
May 7th:     2 pm - Gay Mass in the park, Rock Creek Park Area 9
                   4 pm - Gay-in picnic, Rock Creek Park, Area 9
                   Evening - Vigil for Gay prisoners at Patuxent State  Prison, Cars leave Area 9 at 6 pm. The vigil was organized by Chuck Hall.