Step back in time to another era of queer life with the relaunch of Gay USA, the seminal 1977 documentary on the huge Pride protests/celebrations of that summer. Now digitally remastered, Arthur J Bressan Jr.’s iconic time-capsule film was the first documentary by queer people about queer people. Gay USA saw 25 photographers/interviewers capture six US Gay Pride marches which took place in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago and San Diego on 26th June 1977.
Queer rights and acceptance in 1977 were a world away from where they are now, but there were some fun queer enclaves, most of which were in the big US cities. The US queer community became empowered after 1969’s Stonewall riots in New York. These led to the first Pride march on Christopher Street in New York in 1970, and by 1977 many cities across the US celebrated Pride. The inevitable backlash from conservatives and religious freaks, including the infamous Anita Bryant, led to pressure on the few legal rights enjoyed by queers. Earlier on in 1977 the Dade County Referendum had led to the repeal of anti-gay discrimination laws in Florida, and similar legislation was being considered by other US States. Angered by this, Bressan decided to produce Gay USA to educate the US public on the normality of queers, our numbers and visibility, and the discrimination/abuse we faced. To date, Bressan’s film work had focused mainly on producing gay porn. This meant he knew how to produce a film on a budget and Gay USA was made for $8000. The Dade County Referendum actually empowered the queer community to action and the US Pride marches that summer had huge attendances, brilliantly captured by the arial footage.
The resulting film is fascinating – an amazing vintage collection of voices, fashion, hairstyles, placards and bodies. Good to see the Dykes on Bikes lead the marches, as they still do today. Fantastic arial and ground footage from the marches and celebrations is combined with interviews with many of the attendees, both those in favour of queer rights and those against. Those against queer rights are mostly presented as unseen voice-overs and variously cite religion and an irrational fear of child corruption as the reasons for their homophobia. They universally sound very unintelligent. Those in favour of queer rights are a beautiful mix of straight allies and those who had recently come out following the increased visibility of queer life, as well as those who had been out for a long time. Many of the newly out had been previously married, including many women, who back in the 1970s and prior, were often too financially dependent on their husbands to leave them and live a queer life. Other women cite the fear of losing their children as to why they hadn’t come out previously. Men mention this reason too. Many marchers recall homophobic abuse, job losses etc; but overall the mood is joyous and optimistic.
Some of the questions posed are very basic and of their time. This includes the repeated questioning of revellers “Are you gay?” What the answers do show, however, is that many Pride attendees in 1977 were straight allies of the queer community and saw Pride marches as akin to the civil rights marches of the 1950s and 1960s. Other footage includes different opinions on whether the word ‘dyke’ is acceptable and whether male drag queens are ridiculing or celebrating women.
Black and white footage of the early 1970s Pride marches is also shown, as are some disturbing images of the pink triangle wearing queer prisoners in Nazi Germany’s concentration camps during WW2. These sections were included to show both the progress of the queer rights movement and also to inform about the inhumanity that the queer community has suffered.
Bressan’s joyful, humorous, thought-provoking film is an important part of our history, nearly fifty years old now, and deserves a wide audience. The joy of those interviewees who had escaped homophobic small-town America is infectious. We have a lot to thank those 1977 marchers for. Of course, just a few years later, their worlds would all be turned upside down by the beginning of the AIDS pandemic. This included Bressan who sadly succumbed to the AIDS virus too, in 1984. RIP Arthur J Bressan Jr.
Queerguru’s Contributing Editor Ris Fatah is a successful fashion/luxury business consultant (when he can be bothered) who divides and wastes his time between London and Ibiza. He is a lover of all things queer, feminist, and human rights in general. @ris.fatah
