Original subtitles

-I think it's at least double what it's been in the past,

and as we expected, there's a new militancy

in the gay movement and it's here today.

-To each his own, you know?

I ain't prejudice or nothing like that,

but when they come in the streets

and messing with normal people, then

that's something different.

-I'm surprised to see so many women in the parade.

After all, you can recognize the men more or less.

But from looking at the women, there

must be an awful lot that we don't know about.

-I have two beautiful children, both boys,

seven and nine years old.

If they grow up to be gay, I'll love

them as much as I love them now.

-I think they're nuts.

-Well, we have the fight for what's right on earth.

And we're here, we want to help the homosexuals to live

the right way, the way Christ tells, the way of the Bible.

We're sympathetic, we understand they have a problem.

But we want them to be cured, we don't

want them to go on living in sin.

-Gay people are learning that they are oppressed no matter

what their jobs are, what their roles are in society.

That when there are laws passed against gays,

they're passed against all gays.

-We represent the Human Life Amendment group,

we're fighting abortion.

Life supported Anita Bryant, so that's exactly how I feel.

I'm not for gay rights.

-As far as you can see, honey, it's all the way back there.

We got it together this year.

No more gay county for us, honey, no more.

-This act discriminates the men certain jobs.

Just like heterosexual who might molest a child,

he will be discriminated for minding my children.

Gays rape children.

Gays are in the Porty Authority picking up boys and girls

all the time.

-They got to do more than just come out

when it's easy like this on gay day.

This is a sign of gay power.

What we can do if we all get together.

We still really do this, we got to do it more often.

-I think it's disgusting.

If they want to live that way fine,

but why push it down my throat?

-The only way sometimes you can get certain rights

is by demonstrating, and this is probably

the best way to demonstrate.

-I'm seventy years old and when I was growing up,

I never saw this.

And thank God, I have no children of this age

that I-- that I have that would see a thing like this.

-The reason that we're staying in the Church

is to protest it's policies against gay people

the Archdiocese of New York especially.

They've always been instrumental in defeating

the gay rights act.

-We-- we respect man's rights, but homosexuality is

condemned by Christ in the Bible.

It's unnatural way of living.

And while God loves the sinner, he

abhors the sin of homosexuality.

It is a sickness and we believe there's a divine position also.

There's Christ, and there's religion.

And if all young people, all ages,

heterosexual and otherwise, were taught what God wants

and the way we're suppose to live.

But they're not getting it in the schools today.

-(CHANTING) Gay rights now!

Gay rights now!

Gay rights now!

-You mind talking?

-No, I came just because it was interesting, human interest.

I'm sympathetic to the gay movement.

And that's all.

-OK.

-Very interesting people around.

-Are you having a good time?

-Sure.

-Are you angry about what's been happening to gay people?

-Angry?

Yeah, angry.

But not really vocal about it I would say.

-You have an opportunity now.

Are you gay?

-No.

-Do you have any curiosity about it?

-Yeah, naturally.

-You think most people do?

-I think most people do in one way or another.

I have a lot of gay friends.

-Well, I think when any group of people is oppressed,

all people are oppressed.

If any group loses its rights, we all lose our rights.

Now as you can see from my sign, I'm not gay

and none of my family is.

But yet, but yet it is a group who has every right

to have their opinion, their belief,

their private lives just the way anyone else should.

And I feel very strongly about it.

Also, I was aroused by the disgusting campaign

that this woman in Florida conducted.

She had all the-- the ultra-right rabble

and the kooks in the world there,

and it was a very backward and reactionary thing.

Then of course, as so many San Franciscans were,

I was very appalled by the murder of the young man.

That's why I came.

I believe in human rights.

Every mother has a child.

That child, she does not know whether that's child's

going to be a homosexual or a heterosexual.

She shouldn't ever disavow that child.

She should love it from the moment she gives it birth

till the moment she or the child dies.

And none of us, none of us, can choose.

We grow up to a certain stage and somebody,

somewhere in our genes has laid down something that has decided

ahead of our birth what we are doing to be.

But I would say just as God decides whether you're going

to be a boy or a girl, He decides

whether going to be a homosexual or a heterosexual.

-We hope we get my rights, that's all.

-Yeah I hope they give us cause I won't go back in the closet.

You know it's like you know suicide.

Really is.

-Feels like it kills you.

-Yes, it would kill me.

I don't think it will.

-We're getting married and I don't

know if I should get married now.

-Yeah. -Really?

Today's changed your life that much?

-It's just really changed my life.

I don't if I should get married now

because I don't think I'll have my rights.

-And the reason that I believe that whenever there's

an attack on any group in our society,

we all must come to their aid.

And it's a question of human rights, not gay rights.

And I feel that the environment in our country today

is going a little backward.

There has been attacks, not only on gays, but on women's rights,

on the abortion.

That new legislative bit with the Supreme Court

where poor women are going to be denied abortions where

rich women could always get them.

-To support our gay friends and all the people who we know

are gay, who we personally share some space and living

space with and find no different than ourselves

and are entitled to the same rights that we are given.

-Are you lesbian?

-Yes.

-How would you feel if your child

came out to be a boy or girl?

-A girl.

-How would you feel if she was a lesbian too?

-That's OK.

Feels OK.

-How do you feel about being here today with her?

-Oh, I feel really good about it.

I like her being here.

It's nice energy and she's really enjoying it.

-And I'm here because I would like

to support civil rights for everyone.

I think you know this is something this country has

fought for for a long time, and why let it go down the drain

now?

-Why did you come here today?

-Well, we believe in human rights.

-Are you a lesbian?

-No.

-Are you a lesbian?

-No.

-Why did you bring your children?

-Well, I believe in human rights, also.

-Do you understand what gay rights is about?

-No.

-Are you having a good time here today?

-Yeah.

-Yeah, but even walking around like you'll notice there's-- I

mean, that ratio of men to women, it's really--

must be 20 to 1 or 20 to 3 or something,

cause it's just a lot more men around.

And that's more like bittersweet but it's OK.

-Where you from?

-Los Angeles, California.

-Are you gay?

-No, I'm not gay, I'm here to see what gay people act

and how they act.

-What do you think so far of the parade?

-I think the parade is a success.

I think it's going to have a great impact on the country.

But in the wrong direction.

-Why is that?

-Because to me, this means that these people are going in the--

in the wrong direction, for they're not--

they're not healthy in a sense.

-But I don't know, I don't know how you mean that?

-Well, when your sex hormones, they balance properly,

you're not a gay person.

When you're sex hormones are balanced probably,

you will not find this kind of growth.

-But what does that have to do with

this civil right of gay people--

-This I admire.

--where they want to.

-They could do what they wish but you have to understand,

that this is a-- this is accelerating genetic process

that's taking place across the country

and it's not a healthy process.

Freedom, yes, but to not to be healthy is another thing.

-But if everybody isn't free that means nobody is in a way

doesn't it?

-I agree with that concept, it's fine.

Rona Barrett made it very clear across the coast,

they have their right to their day.

But if the country goes this way,

it'll be a sad day for the country.

-Well gay people don't want the country to go this way,

they just want to be themselves and-- and

have rights like everybody else.

-I agree with the right aspect of it.

This has been said by many people.

-And-- and, we're not saying that everybody is gay.

-I'm not saying that either.

I'm here to observe and I say this

is a bad trend for the country.

But you have your rights.

This is freedom of the constitutional right.

This I agree with 100%.

-Oh, yeah, I like this parade a lot.

There were a lot of spaces in it,

and it didn't feel all smashed together.

It was like you could pick out different kinds of people

and there were all different kinds of people;

teachers, and nurses, and all kinds

of contingents that made me real proud.

Yeah, they were standing up saying, uh,

saying what I believe, you know, which

is that you have to come out of the closet.

And you have to stand up and fight, because they're going

to kill you anyway, you know, one way or the other.

And this way feels a lot better than the other way,

where we're just cowering away hiding

and you don't even know who your friends are.

In this way, you know your friends are,

you know who your enemies are.

But at least the friends are right there, you know.

I like that.

-I feel wonderful about this parade.

In all the years that I've been in them

since the first anniversary in New York,

this one has, has that wonderful balance

between a certain seriousness, but there's also fun to it,

too.

People are having a good time.

-I'm here from Florida, and I want to find out

how these California people enjoy orange juice.

And of course-- hello?

No sound.

The sign says it, huh?

-Are you very moved by being here?

-I am.

I was really crying before.

I just got really, I got really turned on

by seeing how many people, you know,

were brave and weren't cowed by the tremendous amount

of repressive things that are coming down in the media,

and the kind of headlines and things that are making people

feel uptight.

-I'll tell you one thing, if there is a balance here today,

you can rest assured that the media will really jump on it

and seize on it, cause it's sensational

and that's what people will want to see.

It'll be on channel 2 and channel

5 and channel 7 and channel 11.

-I can probably speak for all the kids

in the United States and my brother even.

We all believe in equal rights for kids.

-All right.

-I think that should be made into a law too.

[CHANTING]

[MUSIC - ELLEN ROBINSON, "SEND ME NO FLOWERS"]

-I live up in the country.

But after I was seeing the headlines up there

in the newspaper, there was no way I could stay up there,

I had to come down.

It really scared me.

I have talked to my mother.

I ask her how she would have voted in Miami,

she said she didn't know.

She didn't like my little sister sitting on my lap.

Makes me really angry.

I was thinking of stealing her address book with all

my relatives and their friends names is it

and sending them cards-- you know a queer, too.

You know, next time you hear a queer joke.

I mean they could prevent me from seeing my brothers

and sisters, and they've tried to in the past.

-I'm out of the closet everywhere.

Work, home, everywhere.

And it's the finest feeling I've ever had in my life.

-Marching for gay rights, I feel like there's

a strong connection between third world oppression

and gay oppression, poor people in this country.

I think we're all feeling the same thing.

-We're just strictly observers.

-Are you going to march in it?

-No, I'm not.

Sorry.

-Monitoring's keeping people starting, marching,

we're watching the sides.

-Yes, making everything funnel right in to Market Street.

-Just watching.

-Well I'm-- I'm standing up for my rights.

-I think it's beautiful.

It's absolutely marvelous.

We have straight people here, we have children here,

we have families here, and we have a marvelous show

of strength and unity from the gay community.

-What are you doing in the middle of the summer,

though, in San Francisco?

-I think there's no time like the present

to march for human rights.

-Santa Clause for human rights?

Santa Clause and children for children's rights.

And I think that the movement in the country

to repress the sexuality of children

and I think that that should be fought against.

-For this Christmas, what would you

wish for the children of the world?

-Tolerance, and all that stuff.

-Thanks a lot, Santa Clause.

-You're welcome, Merry Christmas.

-So I'm going to be the gay consciousness

for everyone in San Francisco today.

Going to be the perfect fool.

The Parsifal.

The risen prince, so that everyone

can walk in freedom when the day is past.

-Now there's the women's contingent

and the motorcycles are going to lead off

the front of the women's contingent.

There are at least two bike clubs.

The Dykes on Bikes from the East Bay and from the city

are both here and we're going to be leading off the parade.

[MUSIC - MARJIE ORTEN, "REFLECTIONS]

-I grew up in small town in northwest Canada.

And because of this location it was

impossible to be gay and be happy.

So I got married and had a family.

And was moderately happy.

Nothing to get excited about for 15 and a half years.

-Did you have gay friends?

-I did, but I didn't know it.

-Any lovers?

-No, not until after I came out.

And that was in 75.

-What caused you to come out?

-I met a lady and talked with her

and was able for the first time in my life

to express my feelings without being laughed at

or given dirty looks.

And I just--

-Was this in Kansas still?

-No this was down in Alabama for Army Reserve training.

-Oh, wow.

-And I also have a brother that is gay.

And this helped a lot because I could talk with him.

And I finally just decided, I can't

go on being miserable all my life so I left.

-What was it that made you most miserable?

-I think the lack of any total love.

I loved my husband, but I wasn't in love with him.

And I don't think I was ever in love until I met this one.

-When did you meet Charlotte?

-In 1975, the same year I came out.

Just a few months later.

And we've been together ever since.

-Far out.

How'd you meet?

-At a bar in Wichita.

-You met in Wichita?

-Yes.

I left the town I was raised in and left my husband

and moved to Wichita.

-What was it like to gay in Wichita?

-More freedom than most places in Kansas,

but still very suppressed.

-It doesn't sound like much.

-No, it wasn't much.

And if your employer found out you were gay,

you lost your job.

-Did you lose yours for being gay?

-Yes, I lost several jobs for being gay.

She's lost jobs.

-Let me repeat that question.

Did you ever lose your job for being gay?

-Yes I did several of them.

If they didn't actually come right out and say your gay

and we don't want you, they would ask me if I was gay

and I would say yes and then they would just

make the work so totally miserable

that I would have to quit.

-That's awful.

-It was.

And we decided that we had to have more freedom

to be ourselves and we came to San Francisco.

-You two came together to San Francisco?

-Sold everything we owned, come out

here with $18 in our pocket and two suitcases.

-That takes a lot of courage.

-Yeah, it did.

-Are you gay?

-Sure.

-Um, depends on what you mean by gay.

-What's happening?

Are you gay?

-No.

-I don't know.

I don't think I can classify myself.

-Well, that's really none of your business.

-Everyone is homosexual, I'm heterosexual.

in the same body.

Everyone is male and female in the same body.

-Am I gay?

What do you mean by the word gay?

-It's what's in your head.

-Are you gay?

-Yes, I am.

-Are you gay?

-Yes.

-Are you gay?

-Yeah.

-Are you gay?

-Yes, I am.

-You?

-Yes.

-Are you gay?

-Yes.

-Are you gay?

Having a good time?

Are you gay?

-Yes.

-Having a good time?

-Right on.

You bet.

-Are you gay?

-Why not?

-Are you gay?

-Yes.

-Are you gay?

Are you gay?

-I definitely am gay, yeah.

-You sure?

-I'm positive, I'm positive.

-Yes, I am.

-Yes.

-Oh, yes.

-Of course.

-I consider myself a bisexual person.

-I'm sexually turned on to men and women.

And also that, I think I'm politically

committed to men and women.

-Yes, I am.

-Forever?

-Yes, forever.

-Well, I'm a very persuasion type

and I don't think that popular myths should

be limited to one particular viewpoint.

-Yes.

-Yes.

-Yeah, yeah.

Sure.

-No.

-Are you sure?

-Yeah.

-I am.

-No.

-No.

I could be, but I haven't had any experience.

-No, I can't really restrict myself to just being gay.

I'm not straight either.

And I'm not bi really.

I consider myself pansexual.

-Oh, yes I am.

Today I'm more than gay.

Today I'm jubilant.

Really.

-Yes, I've been homosexual as far back as I can remember,

which is a long way back because I'm almost 60.

-Have you been in San Francisco for long?

-Yes I've been in San Francisco since World War II.

-Did anything in particular draw you out here to this city?

-Well San Francisco's always been an open city

that every one came to, that's the last frontier.

And when I came out here with the Army,

I decided this is where I belong.

And I've never regretted that.

It's a good place for a gay person

and it's a good place for everybody.

-What do you think about what's happening right now behind us?

-I think this is wonderful.

I think this is the kind of show of individualism and of people

power that we saw in the other minority movements

back in the '50s and '60s.

And it's time now for gay people.

-How does this parade compare with previous parades?

-Well the parades have changed over the years

as gay consciousness has changed.

The parades came about first as an anniversary celebration

or an anniversary statement after

the Stonewall demonstrations in New York, in Greenwich Village,

in 1969.

At that time the police had been harassing various bars,

as they always have harassed gay bars over the years.

And suddenly there was fighting back

that occurred by a group of people who

were at the bar in Greenwich Village.

The people who fought back were not organized,

they were not leaders of the gay community,

they were just bar folks.

And many of them representing the poorer elements of New

York's gay life-- drag queens, street kids, the bar people.

And because they fought back and because other people

joined them, a movement was forged.

A movement that said we're not going

to put up with the kind of bullshit

that we've been subjected to over so many years.

And at that time, it became nationally

important to recognize that event

by some kind of annual parade.

The first parades were aimed at gay liberation.

They were aimed at the out of the closet

into the street idea.

And many people joined in those just

on a kind of spontaneous personal basis.

Households of people, individuals, couples, people

were involved in coming out.

And so being in the parade was a coming

out event for a lot of people.

There were also organizations.

Some of the older gay organizations

marched in the parades.

-Other marches?

Yeah.

The first-- first march that I remember ever doing

was Mattachine Society.

There were only four women at that time.

-Four women, wow.

-And the stipulations for the march

were that we must not appear gay.

We must the men must wear business suits

and the women must wear dresses and shoes.

-What was the spectator's reaction to that march?

-Was a mixture of hostility or indifference.

-As the years went on, they became

more celebrations, carnivals.

So by 1972 or 1973, political statements

began to be less evident and there

began to be more of a sense of, we're already out.

We're not going to be invisible, we're not going to be silent,

and we're going to celebrate by being out.

[MUSIC - JAMES O'CONNOR, "GREAT EXPECTATIONS"]

-We're downtown just on a Sunday afternoon

and it's just a parade for the children

to look at more than anything, to be quite honest with you.

-May I ask you a really personal question?

If one of your children came to you some day

at the age of 15 or 16 and said, "Mom, I'm gay."

What would you say to them?

-If you want me to answer you seriously

that's a very, very difficult question to answer.

It's as difficult as if one of my girls came to me and said,

you know, Mom I'm pregnant when she'll be 15 or 16.

I really don't know what I would say.

-How do you feel about gay people?

Are you--

-They're people.

They're humans, just like I am.

-Do you know any gay people are they friends of yours?

-Yeah we stayed, we stayed with a guy last night,

we just got in town two days ago and we just got in

and he offered us a place to stay.

Took us out to breakfast.

It was great.

-Was he cool?

-Yeah he didn't try to force himself on us, you know.

That's his thing, beautiful.

I've been in the penitentiary, see, I know what it's about.

Sometimes it's forced on you, but most the time it isn't.

People are people.

-Where you from?

-I'm from Denver, Colorado originally.

-How are things there as far as gay people, do you know?

-Well, they're more hypocritical there.

They get mugged all the time, which isn't right, you know.

-I saw a guy from work.

I work with him every day and now I

know why he tickles me all the time.

Cause he's gay too.

I'm really glad.

[MUSIC - JAMES O'CONNOR, "GREAT EXPECTATIONS]

-You've never been to bed with man, either of you?

-No.

-Where you been, have you been living in the city

all this time?

-Mhm.

-Don't you ever get approached by men?

-Sure, sure.

-What, what do you tell them?

-Well, you know, I ain't ready for that yet.

-27 years and you're not ready yet?

-No, I'm not ready for that yet.

But I ain't got nothing against it.

[MUSIC - JAMES O'CONNOR, "GREAT EXPECTATIONS]

-It's gotten rid of that hassle.

You know.

-What hassle is that?

-Of hiding it from your parents, from your family,

from your friends.

This sort of thing.

-I think we should all began by, OK I'm gay, so what?

You know.

-And have you been able to do that?

For your life?

-Yeah, for the most part.

I mean slip once and a while but them we all do.

[MUSIC - JAMES O'CONNOR, "GREAT EXPECTATIONS]

-(CHANING) We are your children!

We are your children!

-Makes me angry to see gay people

not coming together and hiding.

Fighting amongst themselves whenever

they're in an organized group.

-Do you think that's happening today?

-Well, no.

I think what's been happening recently

is probably going to cause a lot of solidarity

with the gay people.

And it's going to help a lot of straight people

to realize that we're not all in the closets,

and that we are here.

We're a viable part of the community

and we're all aspects of the community.

We can't just sit back and expect

other people to accept us.

We've got to let it be known that we're here.

And we're not going to change.

-How long have you been out?

-A couple of years now.

At age 33, I finally, I ran into an old friend of mine

and spent some time with her and I couldn't understand what

these strange new feelings were.

And I suddenly said, "Oh my God, I

think I'm sexually attracted to this woman."

Then I said how do I feel about that.

I thought about it for a while and I said,

I think i feel terrific about that,

I think I'll give it a try.

And I was scared to death but being the kind of lady

she was it was a marvelous experience for me

and it opened up a whole new, a whole new life.

Actually it opened up life to me because I had no idea that this

existed in one's life experiences.

I meant the lovingly, the caring.

I got in touch with my-- for the first time in my life,

I got in touch, with a band right behind me.

I got in touch with my femininity

that I really was not aware that I had.

I'd been pretty much androgynous most of my life.

I've been married for four years,

I had an affair for four years.

But--

-Had you had any relationships with women

before you were married?

-I had none whatsoever.

I'd never entertain the idea of having

a relationship with women.

I thought it was terrific for other people

but I never thought it applied to me.

And when I ran into this old friend from eight years ago

and this happened, I said my God, you know.

I've been missing what happened.

But I think being from the south in a small community,

I didn't even know what homosexuality was,

so I had absolutely no validation for any feelings

that I might have had coming up, like crushes

on the gym teacher and that kind of thing.

I had no idea.

-Did your family know you're gay?

-I'd say no.

I've never talked to them about it.

They think I'm strange and different,

but they don't, I don't think they've

put homosexual or lesbian or gay person on me yet.

-This parade was like a reaction,

but this parade is bigger than any one reaction.

So many people saying thank heavens Florida

happened so that we get together.

This parade's bigger than that.

You know I think the sum is really

bigger than all of its parts.

And that's something no one could have predicted.

The feeling that I'm feeling today,

it's just a really incredibly powerful.

And that's something new for me.

I didn't feel this way in the peace marches,

and maybe because they weren't openly gay.

-Because I wanted to see for myself

the city of San Francisco show our nation and the world

that we're not quite as ignorant and bigoted

as they are in other parts.

We both agreed that we have never seen such a large crowd

and felt such good vibes.

-I think I just like it, I enjoy it.

And I think the gays should be given

the freedom for their own.

-Where are you from?

-Philippines.

-From the Philippines?

-Yeah, but I think I'm for them.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Thank you.

Yeah.

-A gay man 50 years old, spent 30 days

in jail one time for no other reason than I was gay.

To see this day, I want to cry.

It's beautiful.

It's fantastic to see our kids free.

It's beautiful.

-OK.

-Thank God they're out, they won't need shrinks.

[MUSIC - TOMMY TALLEY, "SAYING YES"]

-A separation of church and state is not a new idea

but a lot of people would like to forget it.

Big churches, maybe not the members,

but the churches for sure have always back pretty repressive

ideas-- war, burning witches, having

the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition.

-The Bible makes it quite clear that sex of any and all kinds

aside for the specific purpose of procreation

is amoral, decadent, and degrading

And so morally there is no difference whatsoever

between two guys having sex or two women having

sex and straight sex using any kind of birth control at all.

In short, fun sex is degrading and decadent,

weakening and childish and unproductive.

-Well you can use the Bible to defend any position,

if you just take one little portion of it or one excerpt.

-And the Bible says the wages of sin are death.

A man was not intended to enjoy his senses.

-For Christianity, again this is-- it's hard to say this,

it probably offends people, but Christianity very often

is against people, it's against pleasure.

And I don't think that this is necessarily

what the teachers intended.

And even if it was, not necessarily my teachers.

-God love homosexuals just like he loves everyone else.

He just wants them to turn to him and stop the sin.

-This country has a constitution which is the primary law.

Not the Bible, not the Koran, not somebody's

idea of what's good and what's bad.

-I feel like many of these people,

if they had a good preacher, if they had somebody tell them

about Jesus the way that it would help them,

I feel like it wouldn't be as hard as it is.

-It's right there in the constitution.

Freedom of religion.

And you can't have freedom of religion

if you have religion in the law.

Just impossible.

-It's more or less this time about religion and how it's

being used to hurt people rather than

for what it's really supposed to be intended about.

At least, the teachers that most of us

respect, Christ and all the others,

keeping religion out of the laws.

And I mean the law here is the Constitution.

It's not The Bible, or the Koran or anything else,

it's the Constitution.

Well we at least have the right to our own bedroom.

And we have the right to not be forced to accept someone else's

religious ideas on our personal lives.

I mean, I guess religion gets into things

like murder and stuff like that.

We kinda all agree we don't want that.

But there's certainly differences here.

And religion has no place in Congress

or in city government or anything like that.

-So you're saying you want a separation of church and state?

-Definitely.

Definitely.

We've been promised that a long time now.

And I hope we finally get it.

I think maybe what's happening is coming to a head.

For a long time, you didn't even have

the right not to have children.

I mean there were laws in a lot of states about contraception.

That wasn't even your right because

of certain powerful churches that

decided that it's evil in their eyes

that they have to prevent everyone else from doing it.

-But sometimes doesn't preaching against a certain group

of people incite violence against them?

-Many people have a violent nature,

as in this instance of killing this one man

the other day are very, very wrong.

More wrong than the sin of the other person whatever that was.

-A week ago, I was walking down the street and this these three

black kids passed me and one of them bumped me in the arm

and called me a faggot.

You know.

And with that sort of hostility running rampant.

-What was your reaction to that, that incident?

-I was really upset about it.

I was, I felt hurt.

But I was also angry.

-Last week I got on a bus one day with a friend of mine

and I went to sit down and there were

about four black teenage youths in the back of the bus.

And they started yelling faggot and harassing us,

and I just kind of froze because I

was really torn between fear and anger.

-I experienced it right at Market and Castor Street, which

is suppose to be the center of the gay community in a sense.

And If it can happen there, it certainly

will happen anywhere else in this world.

And days like this, we feel very united

and we feel safe and secure.

And yet I feel that there is a threat.

-I understood you to say that sometime

earlier that you were married?

That correct?

-Yes, I was married for five years.

I have two daughters.

They live in-- they know that I'm gay

and they're very accepting of that situation.

And I hope that they remain so.

-I'm on the Jean Gillian defense committee

and we're trying to familiarize people with the case.

And we've been selling food to raise money for her legal fees.

-Tell us a little bit about Jean Gillian's case.

-Jean Gillian is a lesbian mother from Oakland,

and her husband has recently taken her children away.

She's had a trial and an appeal has gone in already,

and the judge has dismissed both summarily without reading it

and has put gag orders on the whole case.

So the appeal's now going to the supreme court.

We're trying to help her raise $12,000 for a defense.

-How much money have you raised today do you know?

-Over $1,000.

-We're representing all the women that can't afford

to be here, because they feel that there are millions

of lesbian women that are really locked at home

in dependent relationships with men, you know,

because they depend on them for money.

And so they can't come out, you know, to a parade like this.

-Do you think that there are a lot of lesbian mother's who

are afraid to come out because their children

will be taken away from them?

-Absolutely.

I mean, I think the whole save our children campaign

has been a real attack on lesbian women

and on lesbian mothers, you know, a real attempt

to push up back into the home and force us to choose

between being lesbian and having children at all.

-How do you feel about the word dyke?

-Dyke, I don't like it.

Walking down the street and I heard some women even

say, hey, yeah, right on beautiful dykes.

I don't like the word.

I won't respond to it.

I'm a woman.

-What do you think about the word dyke?

-Dyke, I like dyke.

I'm a dyke.

And um--

-You think people have used that word negatively.

-I don't.

Do you?

-No, I don't, I like it.

-Having a good time?

-Oh yeah.

-Good parade?

-Yes.

-Good parade?

-A real good parade.

-Very high.

Very high.

-Are you gay?

-No, but I'm all for their right.

-Straight for the rights.

-You having a good time?

-Fantastic.

-Got you another beer?

-Nothing like it.

-You from San Francisco?

-Oh, yes, sir.

-Are you gay?

-Sure.

-Having a good time?

-Yes, sir.

-How long you lived out here?

-Oh, 50 years.

-Things changed a lot in that time?

-Oh, boy and how.

-For the better?

-For the better, for the better.

-Far out.

-What do you think of the parade today?

-It's wild.

No where else in San Francisco, could

I say that this should take place.

It's just fantastic.

-And I glad everyone here, and I wish you know a lot more people

to come and just see the great feeling that is going around.

-How did the two you get together?

-Well first time was at the Castro theater.

We were watching a movie and we saw each other

and just, you know.

Then second time, we just started

sitting together so it just worked out.

-If I love someone, I don't want to say I love you but I cannot

touch you, because, you know, feeling is also very important.

We are very sensitive, all of us.

-What brought you out here?

-Uh, friction between family life in Kansas and just more

relaxed out here.

-Did you find problems with being gay there?

-We can't, we can't show any feelings at all,

or they just sort of crucify you.

They just, they just don't like that out there.

-I believe that people should be able to relate to people

and communicate with people and not draw lines,

because one you happen to be male or female.

Because we are here for life, liberty

the pursuit of happiness.

And that's I want.

-Do you think you're going to stay around in San Francisco?

-Yeah, we live in San Francisco.

Hopefully for quite a while.

[MUSIC - PAUL DUBOIS, "I LOVE A MAN"]

-Now there's you story.

OK, somebody fell in love with me when I was 18, a woman did.

But I didn't actually come out till I was 21, almost 22.

-Well I guess because I became intensely interested,

I was very curious about having sex with women.

-And that yet back east especially women

are into the male female dichotomy

and so that was even harder because I knew what I wanted

but it was mostly in west coast terms

but I was still stuck on the east coast at that time.

-At first I was really curious and excited

then I got very freaked out.

And I was living in Los Angeles, at the time,

I didn't know anybody at all.

I mean, I mean, I didn't know anybody that was gay.

And so I was very freaked out about me being gay,

like I just could not see a future in it at all.

-That came out for woman and that blew sky high

so I had to find my own reasons for being here

and California means a lot to me as a person.

-Then I don't know.

I was also very curious as well as being very sympathetic,

so one time I ask her, Ann tell me what's

it like to make love with a woman.

And she said well, you know I can't, I

can't tell you what that's like.

You, you can only find that out.

I went ahhh!

-This is three lovers later, and now my lover due to economic

whatever is working in Bakersfield for the summer.

-Couple of weeks later this friend of mine and her lover

ask me if I wanted to sleep with them.

And I was married at the time to a man.

-Really difficult because they're into roles, and that

was some of my hangups is that I'm not into roles,

and being gay for me is a whole political power type situation.

-I don't really know how to talk about what it's like, I

guess it's like to love, I mean.

The woman that I'm involved with right now,

I guess I don't know why I love her but I do.

[MUSIC - WILLOW WRAY, "I FOUND YOU"]

-I came because, um, I'm proud of being gay

and I wanted to let people know that.

And I thought the more of us-- and I

knew also it was going to be an incredible high,

I mean there's no way that you can see this many gay people

together ever any other time of the year,

and it's such a free thing.

Cause, you know, usually you walk around,

you can gay but you know most people don't know you are

and if they know you are, you assume

that they hate you for it.

And here you can walk around and people love you for it,

you know, and you can love them for it.

Well the straights over here are for gay rights

and a lot of them are our friends in someways

you know I mean like, they're not afraid.

In some ways of course, they don't

have to be as afraid as gay people do

because they aren't going to get it.

I'm digging the fact that this is the first time ever I've

been with this many men, and I have not been afraid,

and I've not been hassled.

And to be able to be out in the streets with this many people

and not be afraid of them physically or mentally,

you know, is just-- it's never happening to me

before in my life except maybe at the lesbian commerce

but that was with women right?

And this is like being in the real world,

the whole real world, and not having to be separate

and being able to be yourself.

You can't beat it.

-For the straight folks who don't mind gays

but wish they weren't blatant, you

know some people got a lot of nerve.

Sometimes I don't believe the things I see and hear.

Have you met the woman who was shocked by two women kissing

and in the same breath tells you that she's pregnant?

But gays shouldn't be blatant.

Or the straight couples sits next to you in a movie

and you can't hear the dialogue because of the sound effects,

but gays shouldn't be blatant.

And the woman in your office spends your whole lunch hour

talking about her new bikini drawers

and how much her husband likes them, but gays

shouldn't be blatant.

Or the hip chick in your class babbling a mile a minute

while you're trying to get stalled

in the john about the camping trip

she took with her musician boyfriend.

But gays shouldn't be blatant.

You go in a public bathroom and all

over the walls there's John loves Mary, Janice digs

Richard, Pepe loves Delores, et cetera,

but gays shouldn't be blatant.

Or you go to an amusement park and there's

a tunnel of love and pictures of straights painted

on the front and grinning couples coming in and out,

but gays shouldn't be blatant.

The fact is blatant heterosexuals

are all over the place-- supermarkets,

movies, at work, in church, in books, on television every day

and night, every place, even in gay bars.

And they want gay men and women to go hide in the closets.

So you straight folks, I say, sure, I'll go, if you go too.

But I'm polite, so after you.

-Well, right now I'm employed as a nursery school teacher

for the Cross Cultural Family Center here in San Francisco.

And I work with two, three, and four year

old children as a teacher.

-And they have for as long I've been out.

And maybe for as long as I'm aware of being gay,

that was a question with my desired

ballet training as a kid.

My mother's best friend said that I'd

be a silly little faggot, so I didn't get ballet training.

I would have want to, I'm sorry I didn't now,

it would have been nice preparation.

-Oh I just, I just enjoy it so much.

I just love being with little children

and I love sharing my love with little children.

Watching them run and jump and grow.

It's been a shear joy, just a joy.

-I'm from San Diego, and with the exception of friends

I've made since I've been here, most of my friends

here are San Diego gay men.

And we moved pretty well on for that reason

because it wasn't possible there.

We didn't give as possible to be comfortably gay,

be where we are and be gay and stay there.

So we split.

This is the place to be to do that.

-Living in San Francisco has been,

has been a real saving grace for that.

I found problems with it as a junior high school

teacher in Rochester, New York.

That's one of the reasons that led me to come out here.

I used to teach junior high school for five years,

I was a junior high school art teacher in upstate New York.

Was in the closet, was feeling very dissatisfied with myself.

And then I came out to visit San Francisco,

and saw everyone loving everyone else and saw so much openness

and I just knew I had to be here.

-I guess it's cause I'm gay, I haven't ever been straight,

so I don't know how I would relate

to this if I were straight.

-Because I have beautiful relationships

with their parents as well.

I, for the first time in my life,

I can live as an open gay person and can totally be myself.

I could be as flashy as I want and I

could be as conservative as I want.

-Well, here's the story.

When I was four years old, I used to put blocks in my socks

because I always wanted to wear high heels.

And I used to do it very secretive, you know.

Well I came to San Francisco and I

found out that it was really OK.

And I wear my high heels on days like today

because I've always wanted to wear high heels, you know.

I think it's really, it's OK.

It's perfectly all right to wear high heels.

I get a little flack now and again

but I can handle it I hope.

-My feeling is about drags, it's degrading to women.

And I don't pretend to understand what motivates

the men to do that but I know that the whole society mocks

women at the same time that it pushes them into that role.

And I think that there are women still all over the country, all

over the world, suffering from trying

to being that stereotype.

And being taught continually that that's what they're to be.

And then to see men just getting off on it knowing that they're

not stuck with the oppression that goes with it.

That they're just having a good time.

They can take off their dress and their makeup

and just be free of that role.

So really to me, it's a very, very heavy issue.

-Oh I love it.

I made a decision a long time ago not

to do anything I didn't feel good about.

To have a good time, to have fun.

I mean it's the only thing worth doing.

-Really, I haven't taken any time

to deal with drag queens or men who

are into drags, because I find it offensive.

-Drag is just the tool that you use to express who you are,

and in terms of clothes.

Some people wear leather, some people wear feathers,

some people wear sequins, some people wear Levi's.

It's all drag.

It's all the tools to tell other people who you are.

-I like outrageousness.

You know like I like punk rock and I like crazy things.

But I'm a punk rock freak.

But drag is somewhat offensive to me.

-And I think that when you're having a good time,

people relate to that goodness, even if it's not their style.

-When I see men dressed up, um, as Anita Bryant look likes

and, which is what they're doing most of the time,

in a very offensive way, cause there's

no description for womanhood in my mind.

-It runs from all sorts.

I mean people love it, people hate it.

The same way that people love or hate you no matter what.

But it's just the focusing device, you know?

It's like a magnifying glass that just makes it clear,

it makes it bigger in your eyes.

And I still relate to people hopefully as I would relate

to them outside of this dress and this feathers

and these makeup.

-Into it is a giggle.

I talked to a guy at this thing we went to last Sunday

and it's just a giggle.

-Yeah, because it's fun there's also

a political sentiment behind it.

I mean I feel a victim of sexism.

And I think it to understand what I am victimized about,

I have to understand what sex is all about,

both as a homosexual-- as relating to women,

sex in terms of the clothes that they wear and stuff,

this helps me feel androgynous or hermaphrodite.

I mean it makes me feel like a whole person

instead of just half a person.

Just like I'm part of the whole human race instead of just half

of it.

-In to radical a societies and oppressive

societies and fashion societies.

People are taught to dress a like.

People are forced to dress alike, to act alike,

to perform a life as opposed to follow their inner needs,

inner inter wants, their own promotion.

And it's easier.

It's easier to control people when you don't relate to them

on an individual level, or you're

relating to them as an image.

I'm an individual human being and I want to express that.

I want to express the truth inside of me.

I mean everybody is different.

They need to express that differentness then people don't

automatically fall into line and start automatically taking

orders and automatically not question what superiors quote

unquote are telling them to do.

And when everybody looks alike, then you're

just assuming that everybody is exactly like you,

so you can take all these liberties with them,

as opposed to seeing that people are into different trips.

When you look at mass demonstrations in totalitarian

societies, I mean, where you see these, as many people

as there are here today, you don't

get a sense of the individual, you don't get a sense

that these are real people there,

you only I mean see herds of sheep.

I mean the basis of racism and sexism and ages

and seeing people at not individuals,

but seeing them as part of the group.

Seeing them as stereotypes, you know, a faggot

or a nigger or a dirty old man.

You begin not to think of people as individuals.

People dress alike, people talk like, people

raise their hands at same time.

When people are just being themselves,

you begin to see that there is this whole diversity.

Seeing all these people today just gives one

a sense of confidence that that kind of thing

could never happen again because there's

this whole spectrum of people around.

And certainly some of us are not going to let that happen again.

-I notice a lot of people wearing pink triangles today.

-The pink triangle has come into use in recent years

as an identification with the gay individuals, who

were imprisoned in Nazi Germany, and were forced

to wear a pink triangle signifying their homosexuality.

The sad fact of gay history during that time

is that very few people, either then or even now,

realize how many or hundreds of thousands of gay individuals

were rounded up, thrown into concentration camps,

and killed, executed summarily or worked to death.

The homosexual population in Germany

was one of the first populations that was subjected to genocide.

In fact some of the methods of extermination

that were used later had first been

try it out on gay individuals.

Gay people must learn their own history.

Many people wear the pink triangle

and probably have little idea how

horrible the history of that triangle is.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

-(CHANTING) Gay rights now!

Gay rights now!

Gay rights now!

-If you could invite one gay person from any period

of history, who would you like to see here today?

-Well I, I wouldn't want to say anyone one person I'd like.

I mean, I can think of lots and lots of people that like,

I wish were here.

I wish.

-Well I think I would like to see Alexander the Great,

after reading the "Persian Boy," I

think it would be a beautiful history lesson

to see that men strutting down the street

with the sunlight glinting off of his armor.

-I wish all Amazons were here that raise so much ruckus.

-Herman Melville.

-I'd like to have Jesus Christ, I'm

pretty convinced he was gay.

I mean, any man that has no women

and you know, who can say, we know he had no women,

it says that in the Bible.

It never mentioned no men so I think that probably was gay.

-Well, I think he'd enjoy the parade.

-I think he would definitely enjoy the parade.

He's see that a lot of people dress like him for sure.

-I wish Sappho was here and all, all her friends.

-I think James Baldwin, if he's gay.

-I wish Diana the Huntress was here.

-Probably Buster Crab you know.

Nowadays he could still be in his movies.

Back then they kicked him out of his movie contract

for being gay.

-Bessie Smith.

-Well I think, I think Andre Gide would

be the man I was thinking about today as I was going along.

When I was a student, Andre Gide, the great French man

of letters, was an inspiration and model

because he was open about his gayness

although it was a struggle for him.

And he would have liked taking to the streets.

He was a man of the streets as well as a man of letters.

-The spectacle of today with all of the thousands and thousands

and thousands of people on the streets in San Francisco

and in other major cities, is that's it's

a statement to everyone in the world

that there are gay people, that there is a gay life, that there

is a gay community for the young person

somewhere feeling very much alone.

This kind of statement does away with that terrible sense

of isolation and loneliness.

We used to have an expression that so and so was not

for street wear, meaning you couldn't walk down

the street with them without being

somewhat identified as a gay person.

And if you were trying to keep a cover,

if you were trying to maintain a job or live in a community

where you didn't want people to know you were gay.

There were certain people you couldn't associated with.

But those people, we always knew,

were serving us a purpose.

They gave us a screen behind which we could hide.

And therefore, it's very important in today's gay parade

that there be individuals who are blatant, who are obvious,

who are outrageous.

Because they've always been there.

The drag queens, the hair fairies,

the people who by their behavior said, I'm so gay,

I can't cover it up.

And then the rest of us could stand on the sidelines

and let the rest of the world think

that that's what a gay person looked like.

Today, we join them and hold hands.

[MUSIC - TOMMY TALLEY, "ALL PEOPLE"]

[MUSIC - ELLEN ROBINSON, "GLAD TO BE LOVING YOU"]