The Stonewall Riots sparked annual events now known as Pride. In 1970, New York and Los Angeles held the first versions called Christopher Street Liberation Days. The first Liberation Day Parade in NYC commenced small but grew to 1000’s of participants by the end. Folks met on Christopher Street near the Stonewall and walked up 6th Avenue to Central Park, where attendees enjoyed speeches and events for the rest of the day.

In 1973, the New York rally was held at Washington Square Park in Manhattan. At the time, the gay and lesbian community showed rifts. In 1973, lesbian feminists had begun to speak out about misogyny enacted within the movement. At the time some of their argument centered around drag, or what they called “the impersonation or mockery of women by men for entertainment or profit.” Drag had its place in the history of the lesbian and gay movement because queens were there the night of the Stonewall Riots. In the public discussion of drag though, the lived experiences of transgender identities who did not see themselves as drag queens were hard to convey. Lesbian feminists like Jean O’Leary saw transgender women like Sylvia Rivera as disruptive to their movement, even calling Sylvia a “man in women’s clothing” at the Christopher Street Liberation Day Parade. This rift is made clear in the video below, where Jean reads a statement about these sentiments to the crowd at the rally.

Jean O Leary In Rare Form! from reina july on Vimeo.

Trans activist Sylvia Rivera went mic-to-mic with Jean O’Leary, offering her own opinion about the direction of the movement in 1973. At the time, Sylvia was working with other transgender activists at the STAR House in the East Village supporting homeless gay and trans youth and people who were in or had gone to jail. STAR stood for Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries and the group offered a home to struggling youth as well as other support such as meals and clothing. Sylvia’s speech at the rally highlights the work of STAR within a movement that silenced the voices of the most marginalized in order to advance more mainstream causes.

y’all better quiet down! from reina july on Vimeo.

(Thank you to Reina July for her archival research and to Sarah Schulman for contextual anecdotes.)