Pride in the 1980's

The Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners group, which the campaign forged between the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community and British labour groups, proved to be an important turning point in the progression of LGBT issues in the United Kingdom.

Photo courtesy of the Peace News Archive/University of Bradford, Special Collections

"People wanted gay men to be swishy hairdressers, drag queens, or sadistic murderers, not the boy next door...I think this perception was very disturbing to people." -Barry Sandler, "Making Gay History" by Eric Marcus.

Have you ever heard about a new disease that seems to be springing up out of nowhere and within almost no time it's at your front door? In no time at all, the disease begins to ravish your community in the worst way possible and changes an entire generation? In this #PrideThroughTheDecades, we've reached the ‘80s and it's impossible to overlook the impacts of HIV/AIDS. While first virtually unknown at the beginning of the decade, by the end of the decade it would be visible at the fences of the White House, in speeches by presidents, in chants at marches, and on protest signs in front of churches and medical centers. The horror of this disease also ushered in a new era of urgent activism through groups like Act Up, motivated by Larry Kramer in a speech at @the center in 1987. Quickly, this organization had branches throughout the country.

While HIV/AIDS was raging within the community, other major visible changes began to take hold slowly throughout the decade. Phrases like "liberation" began to be replaced with "gay power", and the more radical organizations that had begun in the ‘70s began to be taken over by more coordinated groups. More and more segmented groups began as a result throughout the United States. These were trying to draw attention to the experiences of those specific groups, not just the LGBTQ+ community as a total.

This wasn't just the case for the United States. In Europe, Lesbian and Gay Pride 85 march in London saw thousands of participants in the streets and on television, all the while becoming an important turning point in for LGBTQ+ laws in the UK. The theme in all these Pride events through this decade tried to be a theme of acceptance and of visibility. A song from a Pride event in St. Louis helps capture the mood in the ‘80s:

You ask me to live in shame
You ask me to hide my name
If I did that to you,
You'd be singing with me too.
And still I like you
I know you're just a human being too
Maybe don't you suppose you ought to like me too,
Cause I'm here to say I'm as good as you.
-St Louis LGBT Pride Project