WEDDING PARTY

WATCH: Landmark Protest For Gay Marriage Licenses From 1971

This is the last video in a three-part series documenting a takeover of New York City’s Marriage License Bureau on June 4, 1971 by the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA), the second major gay rights group to form after the Stonewall uprising in 1969 (the first was the Gay Liberation Front).

A group of badass queers stormed the bureau carrying coffee and cake to hold an impromptu engagement party for two male couples in protest of City Clerk Herman Katz, who had threatened legal action against same-sex “holy unions” performed by the largely gay Church of the Beloved Disciple.

This video shows the actual party in full swing after they chased Katz out of his office while yelling “bigot!” directly in his face. Aside from the awesome facial hair and very ’70s style, this is an amazing testament to the struggle of the LGBT civil rights movement that nearly 42 years later has moved from a cramped office in Manhattan to the Supreme Court in our nation’s capital.

(h/t: The Atlantic)

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