Milwaukee’s Pride Parade celebrates 20 years this month with the theme ‘respecting the past and honoring the future.’ Since its inception in 2005, the parade’s organizers have maintained a ‘politics-free’ culture in order to become a family-oriented celebration of queer joy – a feat that was made possible by the political struggle of this city’s queer elders.
The very first gay pride march in Milwaukee was a political protest. So was the second, and the third. In each of these pivotal events, one goal persisted: To be seen as queer and proud by as many people as possible.
In January 1971, just two years after the Stonewall riots, a visionary group of queer activists known as the Gay Liberation Front marched from the War Memorial down Wisconsin Avenue chanting things like “Lesbians are beautiful” and “Go left, go gay, go pick up a gun.” It was the first gay pride parade, and it was truly fabulous.
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“People were speechless!” said Michail Takach, president of the LGBT History Project. “I mean, it was 1971 – people genuinely did not know what they were looking at when they saw a bunch of queens in drag marching down Wisconsin in the middle of winter.”
It was radical, but they didn’t stop there.
In September of the same year, GLF crashed a march hosted by the Vietnam Vets Against the War with a friend’s car, a banner and a couple of posters. Chuckie Betz, founder of Milwaukee’s branch of GLF, sat on the hood in full drag as an ornament for the entire march.
He didn’t even move when the car broke down and all his friends got out to push it to the end. His stubbornness paid off: A reporter snapped an iconic photo, and Betz became the first openly queer person to appear on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal.
Though political activism was amping up, there wasn’t another march until the lesbian and gay pride parade in 1989. Five hundred people marched two miles from Walkers Point to Cathedral Square Park, where another 500 people waited to rally.
Once again, history was made. Under threat of recall, Mayor John Norquist became the first city mayor to attend an LGBTQ+ event and proclaimed, “We are proud of who you are.” The event was the talk of the town, making it into all three major newspapers including the front page of the Milwaukee Journal’s Sunday edition.
The city of Milwaukee installed rainbow crosswalks around the park in 2018 to honor this historic moment and remind us of how fiercely our queer ancestors fought for visibility.
These three historic pride marches paved the way for Milwaukee Pride Parade Inc. to put on the annual pride parade that we know today. Rather than having a focus on politics or liberation, the parade is geared towards families and is meant to celebrate queerness in a care-free setting.
“Really I don’t want to get into the politics because there is so much sadness there,” said Jim Molette, president of Milwaukee Pride Parade Inc. “The bars I used to drink in, the places I used to go, the friends I used to see there, most of them are all gone now.”
This year, Molette says they won’t do much more than carry a commemorative banner to celebrate 20 years of operation. To him, the best celebration is putting on an even bigger and better parade than ever before.
If you would like to learn more about Milwaukee’s LGBTQ+ history, check out the LGBT History Project’s archival materials and Radio Milwaukee’s podcast, Be Seen.
