Early on the morning of Saturday, June 28, 1969, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people rioted following a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 53 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village, Lower Manhattan. This event, alongside further protests and rioting over the following nights, marked a watershed moment in the modern LGBT rights movement and the impetus for organizing pride parades on a much larger scale. The Stonewall Veterans Association, formed by veterans of the riot, has continued to drive the advancement of LGBT rights from the riot to the present day.
In the weeks following the riots, 500 people gathered for a “Gay Power” demonstration in Washington Square Park, followed by a march to Sheridan Square within the West Village.
On November 2, 1969, Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes proposed an annual march to be held in New York City by way of a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in Philadelphia.
We propose that a demonstration be held annually on the last Saturday in June in New York City to commemorate the 1969 spontaneous demonstrations on Christopher Street and this demonstration be called CHRISTOPHER STREET LIBERATION DAY. No dress or age regulations shall be made for this demonstration.
We also propose that we contact Homophile organizations throughout the country and suggest that they hold parallel demonstrations on that day. We propose a nationwide show of support.
All attendees to the ERCHO meeting in Philadelphia voted for the march except for Mattachine Society of New York, which abstained. Members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) attended the meeting and were seated as guests of Rodwell’s group, Homophile Youth Movement in Neighborhoods (HYMN).
Meetings to organize the march began in early January at Rodwell’s apartment in 350 Bleecker Street. At first there was difficulty getting some major New York City organizations, such as Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), to send representatives. Craig Rodwell and his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, Michael Brown, Marty Nixon, and Foster Gunnison Jr. of Mattachine made up the core group of the CSLD Umbrella Committee (CSLDUC). For initial funding, Gunnison served as treasurer and sought donations from national homophile organizations and sponsors, Sargeant solicited donations via the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop customer mailing list, and Nixon worked to gain financial support from GLF in his position as treasurer. Other mainstays of the organizing committee include Judy Miller, Jack Waluska, Steve Gerrie and Brenda Howard of GLF. Believing that more people would turn out for the march on a Sunday, and so as to mark the date of the start of the Stonewall uprising, the committee scheduled the date for the first march for Sunday, June 28, 1970. After Michael Kotis replaced Dick Leitsch as president of Mattachine NY in April 1970, the organization ceased its opposition to the march.
There was little open animosity, and some bystanders applauded when a tall, pretty girl carrying a sign “I am a Lesbian” walked by. – The New York Times coverage of Gay Liberation Day, 1970
Christopher Street Liberation Day, on June 28, 1970, marked the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots with a march from Sheridan Square, covering the 51 blocks to the Sheep Meadow in Central Park. The march took less than half the scheduled time due to excitement and wariness about walking through the city with gay banners and signs. Although the parade permit was delivered only two hours before the start of the march, participants encountered little resistance from onlookers. The New York Times reported that the march extended for about 15 city blocks. Reporting by The Village Voice was positive, describing “the out-front resistance that grew out of the police raid on the Stonewall Inn one year ago”. There was also an assembly on Christopher Street.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NYC_Pride_March#Origins