PHOTOGRAPH BY PETER HUJAR GAY LIBERATION FRONT, NYC, 1969
This ebullient, optimistic image is considered one of the most iconic photographs capturing the spirit of gay liberation the year after the Stonewall Rebellion. The image was used on a poster to recruit people for the first Gay Pride march in June 1970 on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
There were no floats, no feathers, or corporate sponsorship.
It certainly wasn’t a month long.
When the first Pride Parade started over half a century ago in front of the closed Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street in New York City’s Greenwich Village, it was meant to be a one-time event.
On Sunday, June 28 1970 at around noon in New York gay activists’ groups began their own pride parade known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day to recall the events of Stonewall one year earlier
Less a license to party, being out, loud and proud was a political statement. Gays would not stay in the shadows anymore.
Stonewall would be their tipping point.
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"What voters must remember, and what historians will surely highlight, is that this most consequential decision was made by a hijacked Supreme Court. But for the Republicans’ chicanery in denying President Obama his right to appoint a justice and the precedent-shattering rush to allow President Trump to name Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s successor, there would not have been an ultraconservative majority of justices willing to destroy a “super-precedent” and to return women to the health hazards and diminished status of 50 years ago.
This unconscionable decision by an illegitimate court mandates a remedy that should include altering the structure of the court or imposing term limits on justices. It should also impel voters to ensure that, going forward, there will be a Senate majority committed to upholding the rule of law. "
Gerald Harris :: New York :: The writer is a retired New York City Criminal Court judge.
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