inferior-mirage:

Thousands of young men and women homosexuals from all over the Northeast marched from Greenwich Village to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park yesterday proclaiming “the new strength and pride of the gay people.”

From Washington, Boston and Cleveland, from Ivy League colleges, from Harlem, the East Side and the suburbs, they gathered to protest laws that make homosexual acts between consenting adults illegal and social conditions that often make it impossible for them to display affection in public, maintain jobs or rent apartments.

As the group gathered in Sheridan Square before marching up the Avenue of the Americas to hold what the participants described as a “gay-in” in the Sheep Meadown, one of the organizers said a new militancy was developing among homosexuals.

“We’re probably the most harassed, persecuted minority group in history, but we’ll never have the freedom and civil rights we deserve as human beings unless we stop hiding in closets and the shelter of anonymity,” said 29-year-old Michael Brown. He is a founder of the Gay Liberation Front, an activist homosexual organization that has held small demonstrations in the Greenwich Village in the past year.

“We have to come out into the open and stop being ashamed, or else people will go on treating us as freaks. This march,” he went on, “is an affirmation and declaration of our new pride.”

Then, chanting, “Say it loud, gay is proud,” the marchers held bright red, green, purple, and yellow silk banners high in the warm afternoon air and began to move up the avenue.

At the head of the line, which extended for 15 blocks, were about 200 members of the Gay Activists Alliance. They were followed by people representing the Mattachine Society, women’s liberation groups, the Queens, and 14 other homosexual organizations.

Crowd Estimates Vary

Estimates of the size of the demonstration ranged from that one police officer, who said casually there were “over thousand,” to organizers who said variously 3,000 and 5,000 and even 20,000.

“We’ve never had a demonstration like this,” said Martin Robinson, 27, a carpenter who is in charge of political affairs for the Gay Activities Alliance. He walked with the others past crowds of people standing in silence on the sidewalks.

“It serves notice on every politician in the state and nation that homosexuals are not going to hide anymore. We’re becoming militant, and we won’t be harassed and degraded anymore,” Mr. Robinson said.

Throughout the demonstration, first along the Avenue of the Americas and later in the park, where the group sat together, laughing, talking and waving their banners, hundreds of on-lookers gathered.

Some eagerly clicked their cameras, others tittered, many were obviously startled by the scene. There was a little open animosity, and some bystanders applauded when a tall, pretty girl carrying a sign, “I am a Lesbian,” walked by.

Michael Kotis, president of the Mattachine Society, which has about 1,000 members around the country, said that “the gay people have discovered their potentioal strength and gained a new pride” since a battle on June 29, 1969; between a crowd of homosexuals and policemen who raided the Stonewall Inn, a place frequented by homosexuals at 53 Christopher Street.

“The main thing we have to understand,” he added, holding a yellow silk banner high in the air, “is that we’re different, but we’re not inferior.”

Thousands of Homosexuals Hold A Protest Rally in Central Park

inferior-mirage:

Thousands of young men and women homosexuals from all over the Northeast marched from Greenwich Village to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park yesterday proclaiming “the new strength and pride of the gay people.”

From Washington, Boston and Cleveland, from Ivy League colleges, from Harlem, the East Side and the suburbs, they gathered to protest laws that make homosexual acts between consenting adults illegal and social conditions that often make it impossible for them to display affection in public, maintain jobs or rent apartments.

As the group gathered in Sheridan Square before marching up the Avenue of the Americas to hold what the participants described as a “gay-in” in the Sheep Meadown, one of the organizers said a new militancy was developing among homosexuals.

“We’re probably the most harassed, persecuted minority group in history, but we’ll never have the freedom and civil rights we deserve as human beings unless we stop hiding in closets and the shelter of anonymity,” said 29-year-old Michael Brown. He is a founder of the Gay Liberation Front, an activist homosexual organization that has held small demonstrations in the Greenwich Village in the past year.

“We have to come out into the open and stop being ashamed, or else people will go on treating us as freaks. This march,” he went on, “is an affirmation and declaration of our new pride.”

Then, chanting, “Say it loud, gay is proud,” the marchers held bright red, green, purple, and yellow silk banners high in the warm afternoon air and began to move up the avenue.

At the head of the line, which extended for 15 blocks, were about 200 members of the Gay Activists Alliance. They were followed by people representing the Mattachine Society, women’s liberation groups, the Queens, and 14 other homosexual organizations.

Crowd Estimates Vary

Estimates of the size of the demonstration ranged from that one police officer, who said casually there were “over thousand,” to organizers who said variously 3,000 and 5,000 and even 20,000.

“We’ve never had a demonstration like this,” said Martin Robinson, 27, a carpenter who is in charge of political affairs for the Gay Activities Alliance. He walked with the others past crowds of people standing in silence on the sidewalks.

“It serves notice on every politician in the state and nation that homosexuals are not going to hide anymore. We’re becoming militant, and we won’t be harassed and degraded anymore,” Mr. Robinson said.

Throughout the demonstration, first along the Avenue of the Americas and later in the park, where the group sat together, laughing, talking and waving their banners, hundreds of on-lookers gathered.

Some eagerly clicked their cameras, others tittered, many were obviously startled by the scene. There was a little open animosity, and some bystanders applauded when a tall, pretty girl carrying a sign, “I am a Lesbian,” walked by.

Michael Kotis, president of the Mattachine Society, which has about 1,000 members around the country, said that “the gay people have discovered their potentioal strength and gained a new pride” since a battle on June 29, 1969; between a crowd of homosexuals and policemen who raided the Stonewall Inn, a place frequented by homosexuals at 53 Christopher Street.

“The main thing we have to understand,” he added, holding a yellow silk banner high in the air, “is that we’re different, but we’re not inferior.”

Thousands of Homosexuals Hold A Protest Rally in Central Park