For centuries, homosexuality had been stigmatized, criminalized, and persecuted. Their skepticism was for good reason: Until 1969, the thought of a large group of LGBTQ people celebrating their sexual orientation in public was unthinkable. “The idea … made them laugh wildly,” recalled D’Emilio during an oral history collected by OutHistory. When John D’Emilio heard a group of LGBTQ activists would be marching in the streets of New York in June 1970, he told his boyfriend and several of his gay friends.
