{"id":219659,"date":"2026-06-15T15:34:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/219659\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T15:34:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:34:42","slug":"what-was-it-like-during-pittsburghs-first-pride-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/219659\/","title":{"rendered":"What was it like during Pittsburgh’s first Pride Week?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another Pittsburgh Pride weekend has entered the history books. Both QBurgh and city police estimate that more than 300,000 people participated throughout the weekend, despite Saturday\u2019s rain, which caused organizers to shut down early (though not as early as Morgan Wallen did)<\/a>. But Sunday brought great parade weather. QBurgh noted that 2026 Pride also featured the largest number of vendors, and \u201cthe largest number of marching contingents ever to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

June is Pride Month, of course, and festivities continue<\/a> all month long. The celebration of the queer community commemorates a routine police raid at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City, on June 28, 1969, and the unexpected rebellion of the bar\u2019s gay and transgender patrons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Gay Liberation Front was founded in New York City a month later. A year after that, in 1970, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York hosted the first gay pride marches in commemoration of Stonewall. Philadelphia followed in 1972. Pittsburgh joined the movement in 1973 (which isn\u2019t bad: Cleveland\u2019s first was in 1977).<\/p>\n

On Sunday, June 17, 1973, Watergate news filled the papers. Golf fans crowded Oakmont Country Club for the final round of the U.S. Open.\u00a0It was the last day of the city\u2019s first Pride Week, which featured Lesbians\/Feminist Night at the 1209 Club Uptown and a Gay Trolley ride through Downtown and the South Hills. That Sunday morning, about 60 people lined up in Market Square. At 1 p.m., Pittsburgh\u2019s first March for Gay Pride began.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The weather was classic Pittsburgh in mid-June: overcast and muggy with a high of 82. The route was ambitious: from Downtown to Flagstaff Hill in Schenley Park, more than 3 miles away. By contrast, this year\u2019s march from 11th and Liberty to Allegheny Commons Park West was less than half the distance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The Pittsburgh Pride March, June 7, 2026. Photo by Alexis Wary. <\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that it was a boisterous crowd, with a full repertoire of chants, including \u201c2 4 6 8, we don\u2019t overpopulate\u201d and \u201cCome out, come out, wherever you are.\u201d Songs included \u201cWe Shall Overcome\u201d and \u201cWhen the Gays Go Marching In.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants marched on the sidewalk, accompanied by a police vehicle. Three \u201cslightly muscular men in short dresses or halter-back tops\u201d waved to onlookers. Marcelus Luck III, \u201ca tall, muscular exotic dancer,\u201d marched with a 7-foot boa constrictor on his shoulders.<\/p>\n

Reporter Stephen Franklin wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs marchers passed the Arena Turkish and Russian Baths on Forbes Avenue, some men stood on the steps, apparently wearing only towels around their waists.\u00a0\u2018Oh, the boys!\u2019 one marcher shouted out. \u201cI love the baths! I\u2019ll see you there next week!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

After more than two hours, participants reached Schenley Park. The July 1973 edition of The Pittsburgh Gay News<\/a>, a free monthly publication, reported that the number of marchers had doubled by the end. A short rally was held, and the city\u2019s first Pride Week ended with a Gay Picnic in North Park.<\/p>\n

\"\"The schedule for the first Pittsburgh Pride week in 1973 from Pittsburgh Gay News, June 1973. Image courtesy of QBurgh.<\/p>\n

Randy Forrester, who had co-founded The Persad Center the year before, told the Post-Gazette at the time that he\u2019d hoped for more marchers, but \u201cif you were gay, would you put your face on this line? No, you\u2019d probably think of your job or your family.\u201d<\/p>\n

David March, a gay activist in the city in the 1970s and \u201880s, missed that first parade but, as he recalls now, he has no regrets: \u201cA lot of people I knew referred to it as the death march.\u201d It was so hot and sticky that the live snake carried by Marcelus Luck didn\u2019t make it the whole way.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe arrived at the park with a dead snake,\u201d March said. \u201cProvisions were not made for accompanying pythons.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, March was involved with Gay Alternatives Pittsburgh, an advocacy group. As a civil service employee, he was protected by anti-discrimination policies that went into effect in 1975. \u201cSo I came out with a bang.<\/p>\n

\"\"Steel City Roller Derby at the 2026 Pride March. Photo by Alexis Wary. <\/p>\n

\u201cBack in those days, you were automatically thought of as a child molester,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were normal people.\u201d<\/p>\n

March\u2019s advocacy included an appearance on the local daytime talk show hosted by Marie Torre. (Shoutout to old Pittsburghers.) His car license plate read \u201cGay Lib\u201d and during the Bicentennial, \u201cGay \u201876.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut once AIDS hit (in the early 1980s), that was everybody\u2019s focus,\u201d he recalled. \u201cEverything else seemed to pale in comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n

At age 77, March said he and his husband didn\u2019t get out to the Pride parade this year, \u201cbut up until recently we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was growing up (gayness) wasn\u2019t talked about,\u201d March recalled. \u201cI grew up watching Audie Murphy and John Wayne.\u201d Now, he said, \u201cWhenever I hang an American flag, I also hang the Rainbow Flag.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another Pittsburgh Pride weekend has entered the history books. Both QBurgh and city police estimate that more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[20892,73,75,9609,74,72785,74606],"class_list":["post-219659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-lgbtqia","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-history","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-pride","tag-pride-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}