Twin Cities Pride Festival – 32 Years Notable Changes
– © 2004 Original article by Carol Roth. Updated, condensed by J. Olson

Pride in the Twin Cities began in 1972 when a small group of people gathered in Loring Park for a picnic and a march down Nicollet Mall. Since that time, it has grown to become the third largest Pride in the United States, with over 400,000 people attending in 2003. It has also grown from a picnic to six events including the Pride Festival, Ashley Rukes GLBT Pride Parade, Pride Block Party, Pride Art Show, Pride Boat Cruise/Pageant and the Pride Picnic at Como Zoo.

The first Pride festival in the Twin Cities, held in 1972 on the third anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, was actually more of a picnic, and went largely unnoticed by the straight community. About 50 people gathered in Loring Park

1973 A program was printed on single sheets of paper. Saturday was the picnic and march (with signs this time), and Sunday there were other events, like a softball game, a canoe ride and a dance.

The next year the ranks had swelled to about 200, and an article on Pride was featured in the Minnesota Daily, the University of Minnesota's newspaper. The featured speaker was State Senator Allan Spear, and much of the rhetoric was focused around "attitudes, not legalities" as the main issue, along with recognizing commonality with other oppressed groups.

1975 was an exciting year: The Minneapolis City Council had just unanimously declared the last Saturday of every June to be Gay Pride Day and it had been reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Participation was about 250 people, and Sue Born, billed as the first female Gay activist in Minnesota, was the featured speaker. 1976 was not quite as successful. The celebration was split between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and many participants didn't bother to attend both parts. Only about 100 people were at the Minneapolis parade and rally, and poor weather and anti-Gay hecklers further dampened the mood.

Between '76 and '77, Minneapolis city councilmen first renamed, then abolished the official designation of Gay Pride Day. But the real news was anti-Gay activist Anita Bryant's campaign against the St. Paul Gay rights ordinance, which served to give 1977 Pride a rallying point. About 450 marched and more participated in the festival, which included booths, the first full Pride program booklet, a parade with floats and much lampooning of Bryant. Gay Pride was stronger than ever.

In April of 1978, the St. Paul Gay rights ordinance was repealed. The Pride Festival that summer was a nadir of fear and anger, and at the insistence of several activists, including Gay rights pioneer Koreen Phelps, was held in St. Paul to show support in the wake of the disastrous news. In unseasonable cold, about 200 people gathered.

1979 marked the tenth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and the Twin Cities celebration was appropriately more festive and cheerful. The following year attendance rose to over 2,000. Galvanized by the 1980 turnout, organizers Brad Golden and Jack Baker took on the Minneapolis City Council that fall to obtain a block party permit for 1981 Pride. They were met with resistance, but in the end a one-hour block party was allowed, and 3,500 people attended. For the first time the festival name was changed to Lesbian and Gay Pride Week, to be more inclusive.

1982 Pride marked a temporary rift between Gay men and Lesbians in Minnesota. After the Pride committee decided to drop the word "Lesbian" from Pride Week's name again, a group of Lesbians boycotted Pride and held their own festival, Womynfest '82, in Powderhorn Park. About 1,000 marched in the Pride parade (5-10% of them women), while Womynfest drew a crowd of 400.

By 1983 the two factions had reconciled and a single festival was once again held. The City Council dispute over the block party also ended, in favor of Pride, so the organizers celebrated by making the block party the main focus of the festival, whose theme was "Taking it to the Streets."

1985 was a year of mixed results. AIDS was becoming a major issue and so more funds went to that crisis rather than to Pride.. A first attempt to charge admission to the festival, an extravagant festival was underfunded and sparsely attended and the current Pride committee collapsed in debt. However, in 1986 several GLBT organizations, including the Minnesota AIDS Project and the publication Twin Cities GAZE, banded together spontaneously with very little notice and produced a festival that drew 5,000 attendees.

1987 and 1988 Pride were both held in Powderhorn Park instead of Loring, and only showed small growth. For 1989, the festival returned to Loring Park. Attendance swelled to 10,000 and the festival was a rousing success. Amazingly, '90 and '91 Pride continued this forward momentum, with the festival expanding to two days and attendance booming to 15,000 and 25,000 respectively.

1992 marked the twentieth anniversary of Twin Cities Pride. History was a major theme, with a new History Pavilion featuring a vast display of GLBT artifacts from all over the world.

In 1994, St. Paul's mayor, Norm Coleman, caused a furor by refusing to sign the GLBT Pride proclamation, as had been the custom of mayors of both Twin Cities for years. He chose to take that stance because the language of the proclamation included "Bisexual" and "Transgender," designations he considered mere "lifestyle choices" and unworthy of city recognition. Five St. Paul City Council members hastened to present a "declaration," which didn't require the same approval process. In 1995, Coleman again refused to sign and continued his refusal throughout the course of his term.

In 1996, St. Paul GLBT citizens asserted the independence of their city by organizing a separate event, Capital City Pride, on a different weekend. By 1999 the two groups reconciled, and though there were still separate celebrations, Twin Cities mentored and helped sponsor Capital City, and designated a special section of the Twin Cities parade for them.

1997 - 25th anniversary of Twin Cities Pride, 200,000 came to celebrate. 2001 had about an attendance of 267,000.

2002 the 30th anniversary of swelled with participants with widespread support and approval from the straight Twin City community.

2003 400,000 people (and a few pet dogs) attended.

2004 we gather this year to celebrate, accept and love ourselves, and especially to celebrate 32 years of pride that have brought us here today.

(Courtesy GLBT Pride/Twin Cities)