Gay pride parade atlanta 2021
Accepting people and honoring their freedom to live and love whomever they choose was simply the right thing to do.” Much of Atlanta’s population moved here because they could not be themselves in their small towns. Ambassador Andrew Young says, “For people like John Lewis and myself, the question of gay rights goes all the way back to the March on Washington. King’s hometown, the cradle of the civil rights movement, was known for progressive leaders like Coretta Scott King, Andrew Young, John Lewis, and the city’s new mayor, Sam Massell.įormer mayor and U.S. In the aftermath of Stonewall-the incident that sparked the modern gay rights movement-young gay people from across the South fled their small towns for Atlanta.
The American Psychiatric Association wouldn’t remove homosexuality from its catalogue of psychiatric disorders until 1973. In the summer of 1970, few were willing to march on a public sidewalk holding aloft an “Equal Rights for Gays” sign, as homosexuality was both illegal and grounds for termination from most jobs. Atlanta’s gathering bore little resemblance to the lavish corporate-sponsored spectacles that have taken over Midtown each October (though going virtual this year due to the pandemic). The first Atlanta Pride was held in Piedmont Park 50 years ago to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, which took place after police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club in Greenwich Village.