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Houston's first gay pride parade

Page history last edited by Collier 12 years, 10 months ago

June 20, 1976

 

The apex of Houston's parade is now at Westheimer and Montrose, the main thoroughfares of Houston's original gay village. But that first Pride parade took to the streets of downtown Houston—and not just any street, but Main Street. The march was permitted by the City of Houston, the required parade-permit fee being waived for the student group sponsor and the necessary insurance being funded by transgender attorney Phyllis Randolph Frye, Dr. Richard O'Brien, and others.

 

On the Sunday afternoon of the march, a crowd of about 60 men and women gathered in the parking lot of The Exile, a downtown gay bar at 1011 Bell Street (now a parking lot). When the moment to begin the march arrived, they walked the half block to Main, rounded the corner at Simpson's Diner and stepped out onto Main Street, not knowing what to expect. The marchers moved north, down the south half of Main Street, toward Texas Street where the route would turn and then retrace back down Fannin to Bell. Since it was Sunday, there were few people on the sidewalks in downtown Houston, other than those drawn there by this event. And as the marchers progressed down Main, people standing on the sidewalk began to join them. Soon a chant began among the marchers, “Off of the sidewalk! Into the street!” And as more people stepped off the curb, the marching crowd grew to an estimated 300 to 400.

 

The march was brief—the numbers few by today's standards—but with each step taken down Main Street, those participants in Houston's first Pride parade left their footprints on the history, culture, and politics of the City of Houston.

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