The Friday Flashback: Ghosts of Pride Parades Past

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jun 24, 2011 7:00PM

$\<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/62122640@N06/5651502890/in/pool-57589156@N00/\"\>JohnHarrold\<\/a\>\r\n$ $\<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/62122640@N06/5650951731/in/pool-57589156@N00/\"\>JohnHarrold\<\/a\>\r\n$ $\<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/62122640@N06/5651336683/in/pool-57589156@N00/\"\>JohnHarrold\<\/a\>\r\n$ $\<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/62122640@N06/5651336777/in/pool-57589156@N00/\"\>JohnHarrold\<\/a\>\r\n$ $\<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/62122640@N06/5651468904/in/pool-57589156@N00/\"\>JohnHarrold\<\/a\>\r\n$ $\<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/62122640@N06/5650888165/in/pool-57589156@N00/\"\>JohnHarrold\<\/a\>\r\n$ $\<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/62122640@N06/5651417102/in/pool-57589156@N00/\"\>JohnHarrold\<\/a\>\r\n$ $\<a href=\"http://www.flickr.com/photos/62122640@N06/5650838557/in/pool-57589156@N00/\"\>JohnHarrold\<\/a\>\r\n$

The first Chicago Pride Parade was held in 1970 and, while it's always been a celebration of fabulous, early versions displayed nowhere near the homogeny and mainstream acceptance of recent years.

We found these photos in the Chicagoist Flickr pool a couple months back and circled this date on the calendar to share them with you. These are photos from Flickr user "JohnHarrold" of Pride Parades in 1987 and 1988, back when being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered carried an even greater social stigma, the AIDS epidemic reached critical levels and Ronald Reagan stayed silent on it while being more concerned about an extraterrestrial threat.

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