Under blue skies and a warm breeze, newscaster Randy Price and activist Candace Gingrich (sister of Speaker Newt Gingrich) presided as Grand Marshals. A dispute erupted minutes before the start, when a group of Lesbian Avengers attempted to enter the Parade with a bed on a pushcart. Due to the mattress incident three years earlier, Pride and the Boston Police agreed to ban mattresses in the Parade. The Avengers were blocked from pushing the bed along the route. Some of the women ended up taking the bed off the pushcart and carrying it the entire stretch of the Parade with some help from women onlookers. Pride asserted that the Lesbian Avengers never had a permit to march with the bed.
A small controversy occurred when minutes before the March began, MVMC attempted to take its traditional spot at the head of the parade. But that year, Pride wanted a group of lesbian mothers at the front. Pride relented when MVMC cited safety concerns. Motorcycles wedged between other marching groups were seen as a hazard, but one Pride member remained unhappy about the last-minute change: “It’s the Pride Parade, not the Moving Violations Parade.[1]”
Pride Month was first officially recognized by presidential proclamation in 1999. (get more info)
Photos and Memorabilia from 1999
LGBTQ Historical Highlights
- Bi Visibility Day, aka Bisexual Day, was founded to celebrate the bisexual community. The concept of bisexual pride spread in the late 1990s. The Bisexual Pride flag was designed by Michael Page and unveiled in 1998. The inaugural Celebrate Bisexual Day, now sometimes referred to as Bi Visibility Day, was created by Wendy Curry, Michael Page, and Gigi Raven Wilbur in 1999 and continues to be celebrated every September 23rd[2].
Event Details
Date: June 12, 1999
Theme: A New Era
Organized by: Boston Pride Committee, Inc.
Parade Route
START – Copley Sq., Boylston St., Right on Clarendon St., Left on Tremont St., Left on Berkeley St., Right on Boylston St., Left on Charles St., END – Boston Common
Links of Interest
Proclamation 7203—Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, June 11, 1999. By the President of the United States of America.