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The original eight-color design by Gay activist Gilbert Baker has since been simplified to six colors, but the original one is still sometimes used. The first rainbow flag was used in the Gay Freedom Day march in San Francisco on June 25, 1978. A visible symbol that unified the various groups represented in the parades was needed. The use of the rainbow flag as a symbol of LGBT unity and pride is also bound up in the creation of the Gay Pride parades. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. 2012 Gay Pride Parade, San Francisco, California. Today the rainbow flag colors show up in various ways in costumes in Gay Pride parades. Inclusiveness is also a strong feature of these events: all supporters of the cause are welcomed.
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Aware that one of the issues they needed to confront was fear, demonstrators made humor a standard in the expression of Gay Pride early on. One characteristic of Gay Pride events is the use of humor to get serious points across. The San Francisco marchers used “Gay Freedom” in their parades through 1994, but “Gay Pride” was the phrase that caught on in most of the rest of the country. The concept of “Gay Pride” was patterned on a successful effort in the African American Civil Rights movement to use “Black Pride” to expand the conversation from protests alone to a positive expression of identity. In the 1970s, women’s rights and African American rights were already making headlines and securing allies throughout American society, and Gay rights joined them. On June 28, 1970, the first anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots was marked with the first “Gay Pride” or “Gay Freedom” parades in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress. Women marching in the 2012 Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco. Prior to that, simply being Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender and going to a bar or restaurant could lead to arrest for “disorderly conduct.” For many it seemed that new opportunities to fight discrimination were on the horizon. In response, the New York City Commission on Human Rights had declared that homosexual patrons had a right to be served in licensed bars and restaurants. Closest to the circumstances at the Stonewall Inn was an anti-discrimination “sip in” at the Julius Bar in Greenwich Village in 1966 by members of the New York Mattachine Society (an early Gay rights organization) where they were refused service. Illinois had become the first state to decriminalize homosexuality in 1962. mail before that, literature favorable to the Gay community or containing Gay themes could be accused of being “obscene” and therefore rejected by the postal system. Olesen, a 1958 freedom of speech ruling supporting a Gay rights magazine to publish and circulate via the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of Gay rights was One, Inc. Before the Stonewall Inn riots, other signs of social change had begun to appear. Publications were created to help spread the movement. A short time after the events at Stonewall Inn, new Gay rights organizations began springing up, particularly in New York, California, and Chicago. Stonewall was a galvanizing event in the quest for Gay rights. Protests and conflicts with police lasted several days, and have come to be called the Stonewall riots. On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York, to arrest LGBT patrons. The tradition of Gay Pride parades grew out of a conflict between Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) New Yorkers and police. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, homosexual behavior, cross-dressing, and other expressions of gender nonconformity were treated as crimes in most parts of the United States. It is unusual for folklorists to be able to say exactly when and where a tradition began, but this is a rare case when history does record the events. Today Gay Pride parades occur on weekends in June throughout the United States, as well as in many other countries around the world. A clown wearing the colors of the rainbow flag in the 2012 Gay Pride Parade, San Francisco, California.