Gay Parade Coming to San Francisco

https://www.ebar.com/image/stories/15310

This article was orginally published in the March 1, 1972 edition of the 
Bay Area Reporter, and is being republished as a part of the Bay Area 
Reporter's historic 55th anniversary celebration as the longest-
continuously-published and highest circulation LGBTQ newspaper in the 
United States of America.

Imagine 60 floats floating Gayly down Market Street, the Empress de San 
Francisco riding past in a gilted carriage drawn by four white horses, a 
gay horse-riding club, bike riders performing their best tricks, a gay 
band, far out antics and floats by gay militants—all this will come about 
if Rev. Robert Humphries has anything to say about it.

Rev. Humphries is Chairman of CHRISTOPHER STREET WEST, the organization 
that puts on the Gay parades in Hollywood. Rev. Humphries, who is living 
in San Francisco now, has called for a meeting of all interested persons 
and organizations to plan an observance of ‘Christopher Street Liberation 
Day’ (June 25) in San Francisco. 

The meeting will be held at the Fellowship Hall of GLIDE MEMORIAL 
METHODIST CHURCH, 330 Ellis Street, March 8, 7 PM. 

Humphries said that everyone will be welcome at the meeting.

CHRISTOPHER STREET WEST is an open committee, and anyone who attends may 
vote. 

“The parade is a community-wide political and consciousness-raising 
demonstration”, Humphries said, “Furthermore, it is a fun thing. It offers 
something for everyone — bar owners, lesbians, bike riders, drags, 
militants, conservatives, street queens, freaks and every other segment of 
the gay community.”

M.C.C. Pastor Rev. James Sandmire, GAA co-ordinator Rev. Ray Broshears and 
SIR Political Chairman Jim Foster all immediately announced their support 
of the parade.

The 1970 and ’71 parades in Hollywood each drew around 1,200 participants 
and 40,000 observers. Humphries said he expects an even 'larger turn-out 
in San Francisco." He noted that all 17 gay-movement organizations in 
Southern California had participated in the last parade, in addition to 
groups from such far away places as Houston, Milwaukee, Vancouver and 
Honolulu.

Humphries expects the parade here will be larger because gay bars and 
businesses will support the parade to a much greater extent. “L.A. bar 
owners are somewhat closety”, he said, “they have to be." To openly admit 
that the establishment caters to homosexuals would invite trouble with the 
police. In
San Francisco, the situation is entirely different. Local bar owners have 
been quite open about the fact that they operate gay bars. They have 
nothing to lose and quite a bit to gain in the form of free advertising 
and good will.”

Humphries predicted that the S.F. parade will get world-wide publicity. 
“In Los Angeles, there was a news blackout on the parade because of the 
ultra-rightist orientation of the mass media, but here, newspapers and TV 
stations have always covered major gay happenings.” 

The political value of the parade is that it shows the politicians the 
strength of the Gay movement, the ability to organize, the determination 
of gays of equality, and implies the likelihood of gays voting as a block 
to oust anti-homosexual politicians.  Its consciousness—raising value has 
two aspects: The fact that homosexuals are marching in the streets in 
large numbers, unafraid and unashamed, forces heterosexuals to re-evaluate 
their attitudes; it puts an end to the stereotype of the homosexual as a 
timid, fearful, guilt ridden, efette faggot who can be shoved around and 
walked over. It tells the world, homosexuals are dissatisfied with their 
status and are demanding social justice and the full equality they deserve 
as human beings.

But most of all, the parade is for the closet queens. The more closet 
queens who come out, the stronger will be our common cause.

If all homosexuals turned purple tomorrow, our oppression would be ended 
by all the purple-faced politicians, policemen, clergymen, executives, 
judges and influential people who would be forced out of their closets by 
such an improbable happening.

The reaction of many closet queens on seeing the parade on TV or reading 
about it, is to conclude that if my brothers and sisters are out 
unashamedly marching in the streets and getting away with it, so can I. 

One small town super-closet case attended the LA. parade last year. 
Afterwards he said, “I’ll be damned if I’ll live a lie, pretending to be 
something I’m not anymore. If my employer and friends don’t like me the 
way I really am, they can shove it.”



The parade publicity also reaches a large element of teenage gays who 
don’t have access to other media, especially in the small towns. Many gay 
boys live very fearful, insecure lives, because society has convinced them 
that there is something wrong with them. They attempt to conceal their 
homosexuality from their friends, their parents, and even from themselves. 
Imagine the consciousness-raising effect on a guilt-ridden boy when he 
sits down with his family to watch the evening news and sees thousands of 
people like himself marching in the streets. 

Although he may not say a word, seeing the event builds a new self-
confidence, a new sense of worth, a new pride in himself and an awareness 
that there are others like him. It can give him the strength to withstand 
the immense conformist pressures teen-age boys are subjected to by 
heterosexual society. It can save him from the tragedy of marriage, a 
mistake that has caused irreparable damage to the lives and happiness of 
many gays who did not come out until after they were married and had a 
house full of brats.

There is a good chance that the San Francisco parade will be the 
CHRISTOPHER STREET WEST PARADE.

The original agreement between LA. and Bay Area gay organizations was that 
the parade was to alternate between LA. and S.F.  However, when Bay Area 
groups made no move to organize a parade in 1971, L.A. went ahead and had 
the second parade in LA. In this event, the S.F. parade could rely on 
hundreds of supporters from L.A., Seattle, Vancouver, and everywhere west 
of the Mississippi.  The San Jose parade, which drew 200 participants last 
year, would probably be co-opted and merged into the S.F. demonstration. 

Our parade would have to compete for media attention with the Chicago 
parade, which drew 1,200 participants last year, and the New York parade 
which drew 35,000 participants. However, neither of the Eastern 
metropolises would issue parade permits allowing motorized floats, 
consequently the Eastern parades were just marchers with signs, and a few 
float-like objects that could be hand-carried.

REV. Humphries says he expects no trouble in getting a parade permit. The 
LA. Police Department refused to issue a parade permit for the first 
CHRISTOPHER STREET WEST PARADE, so parade organizers went to court and got 
an injunction ordering the police and other city officials not to 
interfere with the parade.

The injunction is binding on the entire state, so local officials have no 
legal basis for resisting the parade.

https://www.ebar.com/story/166879

Put those who fund these public displays of perversion out of business.