“LESBIANS ARE BEAUTIFUL” – “A DAY WITHOUT LESBIANS IS LIKE A DAY WITHOUT SUNSHINE,” Gay Freedom Day Parade, San Francisco, California, June 1979. Photographer unknown, c/o @chicagotribune.
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In the late 1970s, as former beauty queen, singer, spokesperson, and archconservative Anita Bryant’s Save Our Children campaign battled anti-discrimination ordinances across the country, the queer community unified around a common enemy.
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From 1977 to 1979, virtually every gathering of queer Americans (and many across the world) featured every kind of anti-Anita paraphernalia, including signs, banners, shirts, pins, speeches, songs, and chants.
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Here, Gay Freedom Day participants present a spin on the tagline Bryant made famous as spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission: “Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
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[Please note: most sources incorrectly describe this image as one of a Chicago Pride Parade; it is, in fact, from San Francisco’s 1979 Gay Freedom Day Parade. We base the location on the streetcar tracks and the sign for Mason & Turk Streets (which intersect with Market Street) in the background. The 1979 parade was San Francisco’s first Gay Freedom Day Parade the route of which went from downtown to the Castro (as opposed to vice versa) and the marchers here are headed away from downtown; that fact, coupled with the Anita reference, gives us confidence in the 1979 date. As ever, we encourage those who are inclined to repost the picture with the correct information in order to correct the virtual record.] #lgbthistory #HavePrideInHistory #LesbianVisibilityDay #Resist (at San Francisco, California)
assignedmale