What Was Happening Before ‘Just be nice feminism’? Part VII: Pride Parade 1973

As far back as Pride Parade 1973, women were protesting the inclusion of males who appropriate women’s oppression and facing aggressive responses.

Previous parts available here: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Similar to the protests by lesbians at Pride marches globally over the past couple of years, lesbians protested the San Francisco Pride Parade and told the crowd of their objections at the New York Pride Parade of 1973 over the inclusion of males who claimed to be lesbians or mocked women’s oppression.

Jay stated how ‘Then he pulled down his panty hose and whipped out his cock (Translation: I’m still a man; I can rape you; I’ve got balls; dig my ultimate weapon). Obviously, he was playing both ends at once, and the sick creature was threatening us with pure womanhood and pure manhood rolled into one’.³

The Gay Liberator reported of the 1973 parade that ‘the emphasis this year was clearly on entertainment, bars and baths. Over half the length of the parade was made up of groups representing various bars…This emphasis was clearly evident in the tone of the parade, and a lot of people didn’t like it’.⁹ It estimated that ‘no more than 20% of the marchers were women and a separate Lesbian Pride Week offered films, workshops and social events for women who preferred not to join in Gay Pride activities’.¹⁰ The Gay Liberator supports Karla Jay’s account. It recorded that ‘after a commercial drag act by two female impersonators, Lesbian Feminist Jean O’Leary read an angry statement. Bitterly crediting her place on the speakers’ platform to “one person, a man, [apparently Rivera] who made a ruckus,” she criticized men who “impersonate women for reasons of entertainment and profit. “Let men tell each other what they think of women,” she said. “Let us tell you who we really are”.¹¹ The newspaper reported how ‘O’Leary was followed by Lee Brewster of Queens Liberation Front [a drag queen and transvestite, transsexual group] who reminded the crowd that gay liberation “began as the result of a riot of drag queens at the Stonewall Bar. Brewster then referred to O’Leary and lesbians like her as “bitches” and ended with “Screw you, gay liberation]”.¹² Sexualised insults at lesbians who protested male inclusion in their definition and sexuality began over four decades ago.

San Francisco Pride Parade 1973

The mood amongst some women was similar in San Francisco. In March 1973 the Berkeley Barb reported how ‘Gay Women May Not Join in Gay Parade’.¹³ It was advertised that ‘San Francisco will once again host a Gay Parade’ to ‘be held on the fourth anniversary of the Stonewall riots on Christopher Street in New York’ but ‘None of the Gay women have indicated any interest thus far’.¹⁴ This was because ‘Controversy surrounded the gay women last year, as the women did not want drag-queen, transvestites or transsexuals in the parade’.¹⁵ As women and lesbians have experienced in recent years, their concerns and needs were dismissed and male sexual fetishes prioritised. ‘Many Gay women have indicated that if drag queens are allowed again this year that they will boycott the parade once more. Several members of Gay militant men’s groups denounced the women’s stand as discriminatory and just as bad as the straight community attitude towards drag queens’.¹⁶ With males controlling the shots, the women were to be forced out through self-exclusion and ‘The vote was unanimous to allow all people and non-exclusionary policy was adopted with the statement that those who are excluded have voluntarily chosen to do so by refusing to accept all peoples for what their trip is and not your own’.¹⁷ Non-exclusionary always seems to exclude some women, usually lesbians.

History Repeats.

This collective amnesia surrounding Stormé DeLarverie and the protest aspect of Pride was present at Lancaster Pride 2019 which was another case study in hostility towards lesbians. Greater Manchester ReSisters, a group of lesbian women (and a couple of allies), from Lancashire attended Lancaster Pride on June 22nd to ‘demonstrate support for lesbian visibility and protest the pressure on lesbians to accept people with penises as dating partners’.²² This sounds within the original and proposed spirit and purpose of Pride. However, they ‘faced a barrage of hostility, which, shockingly, was supported by Pride organisers, and members of the LGBT establishment’.²³ The lesbian exclusion in order to centre male sexual fetishes has continued unabated since the 1970s. It is the same argument, that males are female on their say so and drag, with its celebration of stereotypes and mocking of women’s oppression, is not detrimental to women. The women reported that,

shockingly, Robert Mee, CEO of Lancaster Pride encouraged the situation. At one point he shouted at us, ‘fuck off you fucking dogs, you’re ruining it’ and can [be] seen holding a corner of one of the counterprotester’s flags and smiling in the protest footage. He later went to tell the crowd of people watching main stage, ‘we made them go away, politely’. In fact we left when the situation had escalated to the point we felt unsafe to continue.²⁴

What had these women done to so offend Mr Mee and his jeering, threatening crowd? They ‘came with banners bearing the simple messages: “Lesbians are female homosexuals,” and “Lesbians don’t have penises,” and stood on the steps of the Town Hall. We were not in the way of anyone, but wanted our message to be heard’.²⁵ For this, ‘“Miss Ivy Rose” a drag queen who was part of the official entertainment’ lead ‘the young people in the chant ‘Transwomen matter!’ to drown them out and ‘other protesters grabbed at our banners. We were spat at by an adult woman and her Trans partner and some protestors screamed confrontationally in our faces. One male individual attempted to wrestle our megaphone away’.²⁶ This was all endorsed by the male establishment. ‘Local aspiring Labour politician Dominic Casoria boasted on twitter that he led the group to “stand in front of the transphobes” and “drown them out”.²⁷ The silencing of women and coercing them to acquiesce to men’s demands, the view of women as existing for male sexual pleasure has always been popular.