THREE FIVE SEVEN NINE TRY IT OUR WAY JUST ONE TIME! TWO FOUR SIX EIGHT GAY IS JUST A GOOD AS STRAIGHT The tone of the march was celebratory with singing and chanting: Flags depicted a pink triangle, the symbol that homosexual men were forced to wear in Nazi concentration camps, and adopted as a prominent international totem by the early gay liberation movement. Pink and black flags, banners and balloons made for a colourful spectacle. The parade began in Victoria Square, proceeded down King William, Grenfell, Pulteney and Rundle Streets and concluded with a Speak Out in the Parklands adjacent to the Torrens Parade Grounds. The country received an education that week as it learned that young radical homosexual men and women were using it to describe themselves, with a sense of pride and celebration. At this time most Australians would have associated the word GAY with ‘having or showing a joyous mood’. The Proud Parade was Adelaide’s climax of Gay Pride Week, a week of activities, celebratory and political, held across the country in Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. It was the PROUD PARADE, Adelaide’s very first Gay Pride March organised by Gay Activists Alliance Adelaide. Yes, it was a group of youthful homosexual men and women, their friends and supporters, who had ‘taken to the streets’ to proclaim homosexual/gay pride. GAY PRIDE, what did it mean? There followed a large pink banner with the words HOMOSEXUAL LIBERATION in bold black capital letters.
![first gay pride parade 1970 first gay pride parade 1970](https://flashbak.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/first-pride-9-1200x831.jpg)
![first gay pride parade 1970 first gay pride parade 1970](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/22/40/66/4853127/9/920x920.jpg)
It was the parade of 100 or so young people led by eight of their company each carrying a large pink beglittered letter which collectively spelled GAY PRIDE. To what was it referring? On Saturday 15th September 1973 Adelaide witnessed an event never seen before on its streets in all its 136 year history.
![first gay pride parade 1970 first gay pride parade 1970](https://media.timeout.com/images/100198477/630/472/image.jpg)
So blazoned the headline in the pictorial ‘centrefold’ of Adelaide University student newspaper On Dit.