{"id":855157,"date":"2025-06-12T19:13:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T00:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/12\/these-nyc-pride-photos-from-the-1970s-depict-quintessential-queer-joy\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T19:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T00:13:18","slug":"these-nyc-pride-photos-from-the-1970s-depict-quintessential-queer-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/12\/these-nyc-pride-photos-from-the-1970s-depict-quintessential-queer-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"These NYC Pride photos from the 1970s depict quintessential queer joy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There are a few Pride march staples you\u2019re likely to find every June, dating to the first such events in 1970: massive handheld fans, ornate gowns, voluminous wigs and loving embraces. But at the \u201cOut of the Closets! Into the Streets!<\/a>\u201d exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York, there\u2019s one thing missing \u2014 rainbow flags.<\/p>\n

The photography collection, featuring 18 photographs taken by artist Francisco Alvarado-Ju\u00e1rez, depicts scenes from New York City Pride marches in 1975 and 1976 \u2014 just a few years before the LGBTQ flag was created in 1978. Alvarado-Ju\u00e1rez\u2019s collection is a time portal in more than one way, though: The photos were all captured on Kodachrome film, an early type of color film that is now discontinued. The exhibition is on display and will run until Aug. 31. It serves as the second installment of the museum\u2019s \u201cArte en el Alto Manhattan\u201d series, which highlights upper Manhattan artists.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Four<\/picture>
Four revelers at the Gay Liberation Parade, also known as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, in New York City in 1976.<\/span>Courtesy Francisco Alvarado-Jua\u0301rez<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Born in Honduras and raised in New York City, Alvarado-Ju\u00e1rez said \u201cOut of the Closets! Into the Streets!\u201d is not just the name of the collection but a call to action.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially as we got to areas where there were residential buildings, the people in the march would chant, would call out the people in the buildings to come down, you know, out of the closets into the street, to come down and join us, which was a very effective way to communicate with different people who were not part of the parade,\u201d Alvarado-Ju\u00e1rez said in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back then, in New York City, it wasn\u2019t called a Pride march; it was the Christopher Street Liberation Day March or the Gay Liberation Parade. It began on June 28, 1970 \u2014 exactly one year after the 1969 Stonewall Riots<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Alvarado-Ju\u00e1rez, a painter, photographer and mixed media artist whose work has appeared in the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Brooklyn Museum, hadn\u2019t anticipated the photos\u2019 being shown in a museum 50 years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was taking it for myself,\u201d Alvarado-Ju\u00e1rez said. \u201cI was looking at the experience and taking photos as art for art, for the pleasure of doing art.\u201d<\/p>\n

The photos depict march participants donned in feather boas, floral fascinators and fringe metallic vests, posing throughout lower Manhattan with red, white and blue party balloons and banners behind them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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These photos from Gay Liberation Parades in 1975 and 1976 are currently part of the \u201cOut of the Closets! Into the Streets!\u201d exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library.<\/span>Courtesy Francisco Alvarado-Jua\u0301rez<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The exhibition is the Hispanic Society Museum and Library\u2019s first LGBTQ initiative, according to its website. While the full exhibit ends in August, selected\u00a0works from Alvarado will be shown on the museum\u2019s outdoor terrace through next spring.<\/p>\n

Alvarado-Ju\u00e1rez said he lives just a few blocks from the museum, which is in Manhattan\u2019s Washington Heights neighborhood, and has been going there for nearly 30 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is quite, quite different to be able to see my work at the museum, as opposed to just visiting and looking at those masterpieces on the walls in the halls,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Alvarado-Ju\u00e1rez said Pride Month, which is celebrated in June, has evolved over the years, with \u201970s marches functioning more like parades and parties and marches during the AIDS epidemic functioning more like protests against the government for failing to respond to the crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we get into this very dark period of our history with this new administration,\u201d Alvarado-Ju\u00e1rez said, referring to the Trump administration\u2019s policies targeting LGBTQ people<\/a>, \u201cmaybe people can draw some good energy from these images and enjoy them for what they were back then but also enjoy them for the energy they still communicate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/span>Kaitlyn Schwanemann<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Schwanemann is an intern for NBC News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kaitlyn Schwanemann
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 24, 2025, 7:15 AM EDT There are a few Pride march staples you\u2019re likely to find every June, dating to the first such events in 1970: massive handheld fans, ornate gowns, voluminous wigs and loving embraces. But at the \u201cOut of the Closets! Into the Streets!\u201d exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum and Library<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":855158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24190,43],"tags":[19081,5160],"class_list":["post-855157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pride","category-these","tag-pride","tag-these"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}