Most people know the story of Stonewall. Fewer know what happened three years earlier, in 1966, when a caravan of cars drove through Philadelphia carrying the first public gay pride demonstration in American history.
The NACHO Armed Forces Day Motorcade was organized by the National Association for Homophile Organizations at a time when public queer activism was genuinely dangerous. There were no rainbow flags, no corporate sponsors, no months-long celebration. Just a group of people willing to be seen, driving slowly through the city on a military holiday and holding signs that said, plainly and defiantly, that gay people existed and deserved rights.
This episode tells the story of that motorcade, the homophile movement that organized it, and the largely forgotten activists who took to the streets years before Stonewall made resistance famous. They weren't waiting for permission. They were building the road.
Pride started as protest. This is the protest that started Pride.
Watch the video version: https://youtu.be/KsggnOvNCII
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