(Image via New York State Archives, not printed in OutWeek.)
First Gay Group in Puerto Rican Day Parade
NEW YORK [June 26, 1989] — For the first time in its 31-year history, an officially-recognized lesbian and gay contingent, made up of an estimated 100 participants, marched in the New York Puerto Rican Parade on Sunday, June 11th [1989]. The march began at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street and finished at 86th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan.
"This is our Stonewall," claimed Pedro Velazquez, a member of the Boricua Gay and Lesbian Forum, and one of the organizers of the contingent. "We're coming out to the Puerto Rican community to let them know we're here."
Although this is the first official lesbian and gay presence in the Puerto Rican Parade, a smaller group called the Comite Homosexual Latinoamericano (CHOLA) marched in 1979, unrecognized by the parade committee, as part of the "People's Contingent," which included groups like the Puerto Rican Socialist Party. "We had to struggle with homophobia from bystanders and also within our own contingent," said Francisco Dominguez, who marched ten years ago and was present for this year's march as well. "I found that [this year] the people's reaction was much more positive. It was a powerful group. It ended up with a real good feeling."
[...]
Response from onlookers varied from thumbs up and cheers, to spitting on the ground and hisses, but most marchers agreed that for the most part, the response was positive. "I would say 75% loved to see us, 25% hated us. But I think that's a great percentage," Velazquez said. He also noted that spectators from the crowd joined the gay contingent as it made its way up Fifth Avenue.
[...] "People tend to generalize and think that Latins have a bit more homophobia than other groups, and that's not the case," noted Aurelio Font. "The Latino community is the only community where the gays have been able to march openly," added Juanita Ramos of the Latina Lesbian History Archives.
After the parade, the group boarded a downtown 6 train, filling at least one entire car with the songs they had been singing during the march. There followed a celebration at the Lesbian and Gay Community Center, where marchers were encouraged to express their thoughts. One person claimed that as a result of their marching in front of an estimated 300,000 spectators, "openly gay and lesbian people were seen by more straight people than probably any other time in the history of New York."
Some had bigger goals for the future. "This is the first time that an openly gay group has marched in an ethnic parade. We're hoping that the idea will catch on," said Aurelio Font. "Let's say, in the St. Patrick's Day parade, a group of gays of Irish descent want to march. We'd be there to support them. We want to make our presence known in every ethnic parade."
— Mark Chesnut, OutWeek Magazine No. 1, June 26, 1989, p. 6.
As far as I can tell, gay groups have continued to march in the Puerto Rican Day Parade since 1989.
(Meanwhile, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade’s history is fraught. Members of New York’s Irish Gay and Lesbian Organization (IGLO) were allowed to march as part of a non-gay contingent in 1991, but were booed and had beer thrown at them, and were banned after that, setting off a years-long legal battle over their exclusion. In 2015, OUT@NBCUniversal, a group of employees of the parade’s official broadcaster, became the first LGBT group to march under its own banner. Finally, the Lavender & Green Alliance was allowed to march in 2016, and led the parade in 2018.)