1993 April 25

Huge Gay Rights March in Washington, D.C.

 

Up to 1,000,000 people marched for lesbian and gay rights in Washington, D.C. on this day, making it the largest such march in the nation’s capital up until that time.

The first national march occurred on October 14, 1979, and drew between 75,000 and 125,000 people.

The first lesbian and gay rights movement in the world originated in Berlin, Germany, in the 1860s. This included the invention of the word “homosexuality.” Read Robert Beachy, Gay Berlin: Birthplace of a Modern Identity (2014).

A strong national gay rights movement in the U.S. emerged after the Stonewall Inn riots in New York City on June 28, 1969. The Stonewall was a known gay bar and New York City police regularly would raid it both to harass gay people and to coerce bribes from the owner. On this day, gay people, both men and women, fought back against the police. The disturbances actually lasted for several days. A year later, gay rights parades were held in both New York City and Chicago, inspiring gay marches in other cities in the years ahead.

Eventually, the gay rights movement adopted the more inclusive name of LGBT movement (for lesbian, gay, bi-sexual. transgender).

Read: David Carter, Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution (2004)

Read Urvashi Vaid’s Speech at the March: http://www.famous-speeches-and-speech-topics.info/famous-speeches-by-women/urvashi-vaid-speech.htm

Visit the GLBT History Museum in San Francisco: http://www.glbthistory.org/museum/

Learn more at a valuable documentary history: Jonathan Katz, ed., Gay American History: Lesbian and Gay Men in American History, A Documentary (1976)

Learn about the history of marching on Washington: Lucy Barber, Marching on Washington: The Forging of an American Political Tradition (2002)

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