This June hundreds of thousands of LGBT celebrants take part in local, national, and international pride parade events. Thirty-two years ago New York City's Christopher Street, in the highly gay-populated Greenwich Village, was the birthplace of America's first out and newly visible, militantly proud marches.
For nine years photographer Hank O'Neal took thousands of black and white photos that capture (and now convey) the raw excitement, the tide-turning energy, and the gender-bending defiance that marked these spontaneous, hastily organized, but total joyous – and frequently brazen – events.
"Gay Day" is a collection of 120 photographs – which lesbian writer, journalist, illustrator Djuna Barnes once advised O'Neal never to publish in book form. (Sadly, many of the gay men who participated in these early pride parades died of AIDS-related causes.)
New York City's first parade was described by an enthusiastic (and apparently happily startled) tabloid, The Village Voice: "They stretched in a line, from Gimbels to Times Square, thousands and thousands, chanting, waving, screaming – the outrageous and the outraged, splendid in their flaming colors, splendid in their delirious upfront birthday celebration…
"No one could quite believe it, eyes rolled back in heads. Wondrous faces poked out of air-conditioned cars. My God, are those really homosexuals? Marching? Up Sixth Avenue?"
Author William S. Burroughs ("The Naked Lunch"), who died in 1984 before O'Neal took his final parade photos, is quoted in book's preface: "Anybody who says there have been no real changes effected by the cultural revolution should look at this book.
"Gay is now a household word. Well: it wasn't 50 years ago, when I was a kid…. All it took to get underway was one stand by one intrepid band who said, We will not take this crap any longer! I refer to the heroes of Stonewall, who were the first to raise the banner of freedom and who led the way for the gay parade to follow. Time marches on. The gay parade marches on."
Remembrance of passing parades...
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