Then And Now: Celebrating 30 Years Of LGBTQIA+ Pride In NJ

NEW JERSEY — Police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York on June 28, 1969, after impassioned trans women of color such as Marsha P. Johnson and Silvia Rivera resisted arrest, igniting an LGBTQ movement that would look to change years of anti-gay persecution and harassment.

Although this year marks the 52nd anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride march in New York City, held one year after the Stonewall Riots, the celebration's history in New Jersey is a little shorter.

Beginnings Of Pride

The first recorded Pride march in New Jersey was held in Asbury Park in 1992, marking the 30th anniversary this year. However, the LGBTQ community's presence was felt and heard in New Jersey prior to that.

Beginning in 1978, the Gay Activist Alliance in Morris County held a "Summer Celebration" event on June 28th in Riverdale, which was followed by the Christopher St. Liberation Day March.

Rodwell, a long-time activist, founded the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop in 1967 to provide a visible public space for gays and lesbians, and he took part in Mattachine's "sip-in" at Julius' bar in New York to protest the State Liquor Authority's prohibition on serving homosexuals.

Rodwell led the committee that planned the new march in New York City in 1970. The march was called the Christopher Street Liberation Day March as a way to shift attention away from the Mafia-controlled Stonewall and toward the gay and lesbian liberation struggle taking place on the streets.

LGBTQ Activism In New Jersey

The Gay Activist Alliance in Morris County (GAAMC) is New Jersey's longest continuously operating GLBTI group, founded in 1972 by four young individuals. Members of GAAMC have been instrumental in opposing new and existing discriminatory laws, as well as providing support services and social activities for residents, since their inception.

By 1992, the organization had more than 350 members, according to the Daily Record Archive. Michael Suiter, the primary founder of GAAMC, "originally dreamed of using GAAMC as an expressly political, rather than social instrument. He immediately wanted to amend the civil rights laws of the state to include gay men and women," said the report.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled, in an unexpected unanimous vote, that the state could not prosecute the men because their actions did not take place in a public place. It was nearly impossible for anyone to have seen them, according to the Court.

This decision would come in 1978, two years before the New Jersey legislature enacted a criminal code revision that abolished common-law crimes and repealed the sodomy law.

However, later that same year, New Jersey state senator Joseph Maressa introduced Senate Bill 1276, which was co-sponsored by nineteen of the forty state senators, to make consensual same-sex sodomy between males (women were not covered by the bill) a crime punishable by five years in prison, according to The History of Sodomy Laws in the United States.

Maressa's bill didn't get very far, and it was withdrawn in early 1979 in response to public opposition.

While some New Jerseyans fought for civil rights legislation throughout the 60s and 70s, others simply wanted a place to safely drink with friends.

Under New Jersey's post-Prohibition liquor laws, gays were considered a "nuisance" and were denied service at bars. In one case, Manny's Den, a bar located at 111 Albany Street, in New Brunswick was raided in 1965 by investigators of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Manny's Den had its liquor license suspended for "permitting apparent homosexuals to congregate," according to Rutgers Oral History Archives.

This occurrence resulted in the landmark case of One Eleven Wines and Liquors, Inc., A New Jersey Corporation v. Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, in which the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 1967, that gay patrons had the right to congregate in bars.

LGBTQ Rights Today

There is an uneasiness hanging over this year’s celebration stemming from a wave of legislation ranging from “don’t say gay” laws — prohibiting public schools from using curriculums addressing gender identity and sexual orientation, introduced in 20 states and now law in Florida and Alabama — to trans athlete sports bans in 15 states.

LGBTQ advocates’ concern stems not only from what has happened in statehouses but also from the very real concern that a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court could return the issue of same-sex marriage to states to decide, just as the court’s majority is expected to do with abortion rights, according to a leaked Supreme Court opinion draft of the decision expected later this month or next.

University of Texas law professor Elizabeth Sepper, an expert on health care law and religion, told Reuters that Americans are right to worry.

“The low-hanging fruit is contraception, probably starting with emergency contraception, and same-sex marriage is also low-hanging fruit in that it was very recently recognized by the Supreme Court,” Sepper said.

Pride celebrations, which began as an act of defiance, have evolved into a gathering place for all members of the LGBTQ community. People who live in areas where being gay risks state-sanctioned violence and even death may see Pride events as a vital lifeline, as they did globally in the 1970s.

Pride Month is an entire month dedicated to elevating LGBTQ voices and commemorating the lives of community members who have died along the way. It is a combination of political activism and celebration.