1979 October 14

National March for Lesbian and Gay Rights

 

The march on Washington held on this day is believed to be the first national-level march for lesbian and gay rights. The march drew between 75,000 and 100,000 people to Washington, D.C.

See also the later march of 500,000 lesbian and gay rights supporters in Washington, DC, on October 11, 1987, a march that launched National Coming Out Day, and a march on April 25, 1993 that drew over 1 million people to Washington.

Watch newsreel footage of the march: http://archive.org/details/pra-KZ0941 

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

Learn more at a timeline of lesbian and gay rights: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0761909.html

Read about the early history of LGBT rights: Vern Bullough, Before Stonewall: Activists for Gay and Lesbian Rights in Historical Context (2002)

And read: Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney, Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America (1999)

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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