National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights

This week, From the Vault celebrates national Gay Pride Month with recordings from Pacifica Radio Archives that capture key moments in the LGBTQ struggle for Equal Rights. We revisit Pacifica’s coverage of the first national March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights on October 14, 1979, ten years after the Stonewall riots. On this day, more than 100,000 people from the United States and ten other countries marched on the nation’s capitol demanding equality for lesbians and gays; this action would be an important step in the Equal Rights Movement, and an early influence in eventual 2015 Supreme Court Ruling that mandated all fifty states recognize same-sex marriage. Pacifica producers Ray Hill, Lucia Chappelle, and Greg Gordon, among others, all played a role in this historic march and broadcast back in 1979, and they continue their work to this day – Ray producing The Prison Show on KPFT, and Lucia and Greg producing This Way Out, an international LGBT radio magazine heard on over 100 public radio stations across America every week.


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