Gay Rally, 1977; Richard Berkowitz Papers; MSS 421; 421.0019, Fales Library & Special Collections, New York University.

If you haven’t guessed from the rainbow flags that proudly flap around the city, this weekend is the NYC Pride Parade, a celebration of the LGBTQI+ community and its triumphs. Today also happens to be the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the birth of the fiery gay liberation movement that followed.

NYU Special Collections tells the story of that history in its seminal Downtown Collection, which chronicles the countercultural movements that characterized Lower Manhattan in the latter half of the 20th Century. From the wildness of the 1970s to the devastating AIDS crisis that would kill millions in the decades that followed, the lives of individuals who loved freely and fought furiously for human rights are documented in letters, journals, art, audiovisual materials, digital objects, and ephemera archived the library’s vast repositories. 

Recent additions to the Downtown Collection are the papers of Richard Berkowitz, co-author of the provocative safe sex manual How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach and subject of the documentary film Sex Positive.  Among Richard’s things from his time as a Rutgers undergrad is a collection of Super8 films, one of which is an excellent document of the 1977 NYC “Gay Rally.” 

That march, described as “Homosexuals March for Equal Rights” by the New York Times, is notable as a response to the singer Anita Bryant and her anti-LGBTQI+ campaign “Save Our Children.” Indeed, in the digitized film above – scanned by our skilled media conservators in the Barbara Goldsmith Conservation Department – we see signage that pokes fun at Bryant and her commercials for Florida Orange juice.  The film also captures glimpses of such Downtown notables as Rollerena Fairy Godmother and Felipe Rose of the Village People. 

Berkowitz’s film is just one of the thousands of digitized archival video, audio, and film available for viewing/listening in our new reading room when it opens in the Fall of 2019.  Check out our renovation website for updates, and the university’s Stonewall at 50 page for more events related to the anniversary.