Pride in the 1990's

Marchers cheer Stonewall 20, at the 20th annual New York City Pride Parade, in 1990.

Photo: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

“I thought I had come from the best year of all. I had survived the oppression of the ‘50s, participated in the social experiments of the ‘60s, and emerged from the closet into the sunlight of the ‘70s, managing to have a great deal of fun and fulfillment before the plague years of the ‘80s. Not long ago, I gave a reading at the [LGBT Center]. I read an essay about the changes I had seen during my quarter century in Greenwich Village. When the applause was over, a gentleman who looked about 70 years old came up to me and said, “You should have been there in the ‘40s. That’s when we really have fun!” – Arnie Kantrowitz “Letter to the Queer Generation”

This decade did not begin with a fresh start for the LGBTQ+ community. Ravaged by HIV/AIDS, this terror would stretch and strain into this decade and beyond. Groups like Act Up continued their work to improve the lives of those affected by HIV/AIDS. New legislation was created during this decade that would also burden the community. Some examples of this are “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” which affected members in the military who came out or was outed and the “Defense of Marriage Act,” which for the purposes of federal law stated marriage could only occur between man and woman. Even though all this trauma was occurring within the community and beyond, there were still many “firsts” for the LGBTQ+ community in the ‘90s.

The first EuroPride march, starting in 1992, saw over 100,000 participants. Demonstrations would only grow in the next decade for countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. In addition to pride marches being organized in other countries and individual cities in the United States, people began to break down the specific groups in the LGBTQ+ community and celebrate them individually. For example, the ‘90s would see an increase in black LBGTQ+ marches, which were trying to bring awareness to the specific issues that faced that community. This could also be seen in the highly anticipated 25th anniversary celebrations of the Stonewall Uprising during Stonewall ‘94. In New York City, this celebration would number over 1.1 million marchers. Not all the LGBTQ+ community would be at this march. There were separate marches to celebrate those at the Stonewall Riots for respective groups within the community like the trans community, led by Sylvia Riveria. Just like in the previous decades, not everyone within the community was in agreement. This decade was not an easy decade for the LGBTQ+ community but the next two decades would be seen as a referendum on the policies of the nineties.