We Needed This Today!!! 16mm Footage from “Gay Pride Day” in 1978 Resurfaces and It’s Beautiful

April 21, 2023
TOMMY

Every Summer like clockwork, cities around the country don their gayest flags from the street lamps, crosswalks become a proper rainbow brick road, and every cellphone captures every second of every parade in a beautifully succinct 15-second IG story. But before that was the case, Queer visibility was an exception, not an assumption, and what was captured was a longer form than the quick clips we've become accustomed to. Filmmaker Gary Davis wanted to capture Gay Pride Day in 1978, and brought along his Bolex H16 camera and recorder to do so. That footage has resurfaced and recirculated and it's exactly the joy we needed this week!

The footage starts with a title card setting the time and place: "Washington, D.C. June 11, 1978" before opening with a man speaking about the issues gay people were facing at the time. "As a result of the various initiative and referendums that have been held around the country in which gay rights have been removed in four cities, the Gay Activists Alliance here in Washington decided the way to win an election would be to educate people as to what gay people are all about, and gay issues." And although we've tackled issues like gay marriage (for now?) and workplace safety, the message of the documentary's first interview is jarringly still so prescient.

The 16mm short film depicts sense of joy and revolution against the backdrop of a society and government that had shunned us for so long. And to put the short film into even more perspective, let's first acknowledge that this movie was made when events like this were still called "Gay Pride Day" which feels so quaint to us who are used to it simply being known to us as "Gay Pride." In 1978, you could still be fired for being gay and legal marriage was still just an absolute pipedream. But pipedreams are still dreams nonetheless, and the sense that they were all ready to make sure change was implemented has me feeling all sorts of joy as I watch it.

It's also worth noting that this was made just a few short years before the AIDS epidemic began. There's something so profoundly joyous about seeing our Queer family before the fear of AIDS reshaped our community, as well as the world.

The sense of community and joy is pervasive in the footage. At one point in the video, a man is heard in voice-over saying, "I think it gives people a chance to get together, you know? And to communicate with each other, you know? Both gay and straight, you know? It's whatever turns you on, you know, that makes you feel good. You have to be-- you have to live with the life that you live, you know? And you have to be content with the life that you live with and whatever makes you happy, you know? And I think this is a good thing, because it brings all people together, you know?"

We do know. And from 40 years in the future, I'm incredibly thankful for the joy that generation of gay people fought for. Watch the almost 6-minute video below. It may not be June, but this short doc has me feeling super Proud.