While early 'homophile' organizations advocated for gay and lesbian rights, they did so quietly. In the 1950s, people throughout the country hid their LGBT identities for fear of being fired from jobs, disowned by their families, or arrested. The San Francisco pride parade grew out of decades of work to mobilize for LGBT rights. Currently one of the largest and most well known LBGT events in the world, in these years the parade took on its identity as a potent symbol of LGBT politics and culture. These images depict San Francisco’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride parades in 19.
