The movement that gave birth to Pride Month, The Gay Liberation Movement, kicked off after a 1969 police raid at New York’s Stonewall Inn.
America’s 1st Pride Parade
In 1972, Gay Citizens for McGovern were getting a warm welcome from their candidate. In fact, nearly every potential Democratic nominee for President publicly supported LGBTQIA+ civil rights protections and, according to the New York Times, “five self‐proclaimed homosexuals are running as delegates or alternates to the Democratic National Convention from New York State — the first time, activists in the homosexual rights movement say, that avowed homosexuals have ever run for public office here. Gay political activists are talking of forming a ‘gay caucus’ at the convention to press for a plank favoring their views in the party platform.”
Just three years into the demand for civil rights protections, Madeline Davis was asked to step onto center stage at the 1972 Democratic convention at great personal risk. These are her words in full.
“It's our opportunity to speak to you. Twenty million Americans are grateful and proud of the Democratic Party. We are the minority of minorities. We belong to every race and creed, both sexes, every economic and social level, every nationality and religion. We live in large cities and in small towns, but we are the untouchables in American society. We have suffered the gamut of oppression, from being totally ignored or ridiculed, to having our heads smashed and our blood spilled in the street. Now we are coming out of our closets and onto the convention floor - to tell you the delegates and to tell all gay people throughout America that we are here to put an end to our fears - our fears that people will know us for who we are - that they will shun and revile us, fire us from our jobs, reject us from our families, evict us from our homes, beat us and jail us. And for what? Because we have chosen to love each other.
I am asking that you vote yes for the inclusion of this minority report into the Democratic platform for two major reasons. First, we must speak to the basic civil rights of all human beings. It is inherent in the American tradition that the private lives and lifestyles of citizens should be both allowed and ensured, so long as they do not infringe upon the rights of others. A government that interferes with the private lives of its people is a government that is alien to the American tradition and the American dream. You have before you, a chance to reaffirm that tradition and that dream. As a matter of practicality, you also have the opportunity to gain the vote of 20 million Americans that will help in November to put a Democrat in the White House.”
The request was rejected after Ohio Delegate, Kathy Welch took the stage and connected homosexuality to pedophilia. At the time, the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” listed homosexuality as a mental disorder that was to be treated by “ice pick lobotomies, electroshock, chemical castration with hormonal treatment or aversive conditioning,” according to Dr. Katharine Milar, professor of psychology at Earlham College. Sodomy laws criminalized same-sex intimacy in all but three states. So when Kathy likened homosexuality to criminal sexual assault, it was familiar language to the crowd.
“Liberty and Justice for All includes blacks, Chicanos, American Indians, women, homosexuals or any other group. ALL means ALL.”
1972 Democratic Platform
Years after the convention, one of McGovern’s top advisors, Frank Mankiewicz, donated a “small file that was titled ‘Gays’ to the JFK Library.” JFK Library Archivist Stacey Flores Chandler found that the six-part McGovern proposal originally included a prohibition against discriminatory hiring and licensing practices by the federal government and companies that contract with the federal government. It prohibited sexual preference from being considered in immigration status, housing, and insurance. It required the federal government to provide education on LGBTQIA+ discrimination and it required the Department of Defense to reclassify the dishonorable discharge of servicemembers whose service was dishonorable solely based on their sexual orientation.
LGBTQ Nation
The more traditional Democrats just couldn’t bring themselves to support another “radical” idea. It was either the feminist or “the gays.” It could not be both. In their defeat, the LGBTQIA+ community split. Some turned on McGovern. Some remained realistic that he was still their best hope for equality. In response, McGovern penned a letter that read, in part, “I have long supported the civil liberties and civil rights of all Americans and have in no way altered my commitment to these rights, and I have no intention of doing so.”
President Nixon’s response? “Mr. Nixon has nothing to say to the homosexual community.” Still, out of frustration or betrayal or both, some portion of the LGBTQIA+ undoubtedly cast their vote for Nixon while others didn’t vote at all.
The inclusion of LGBTQIA+ protections didn’t make it into the Democratic platform until 1980. That same year, for the first time, the Republican Party platform called for defending the “traditional American family.”
“Government may be strong enough to destroy families, but it can never replace them.”
1980 GOP Platform