June 1971 First Gay Rally in St. James Park in downtown San Jose with more that 100 people attending
June 1975 First Gay Pride Day held on the San Jose State University Campus
June 1976 First official Gay Freedom Day Rally and Dance was held at St. James Park.
June 1977 First Gay Parade in San Jose takes place from City Hall to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds for Gay Freedom Day Rally and Dance
June 1982 First Mr. San Jose Leather contest was held at the Gay Freedom Day Rally and Dance
June 1983 The name was changed to Gay Pride Day Celebration
From 1976 through 1983 the Lambda Association sponsored the annual Gay Celebrations in San Jose.
February 1986 Gay Pride Celebration Committee of San Jose was formed and incorporated to sponsor the Annual Gay Pride Celebration in San Jose, since none had happened since 1983. Pride Festival took place on Stockton Street.
June 1991 The Gay Pride Festival expanded to a 2-day event with all local entertainment, festival games, competitions between various organizations for Pride Championships. And the parade returned after not having one since 1983 on Stockton Street, which at the time had 15 Gay Bars and Night Clubs. The Pride Festival moved back to the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
June 1995 The Gay Pride Festival was moved to Discovery Meadows in Downtown San Jose and the Parade moved back to downtown.
1998 A professional Festival Director and Promoter is hired to run the Festival. The Pride Board that it was time to professional and more enjoyable festival and after reviewing several event coordinators, the Board hired Gary Walker Productions.
June 2001 Pride brings in big name entertainers to perform on Sunday – RuPaul, Amber, and others. Saturday becomes Family and Women’s Day, called Community Day in the Park.
June 2005 The United Church of Christ supports the GLBT Community with a worship service on Saturday and money, sponsor all of Saturday’s Festival.
June 2010 The Board decided to move the Festival to August, so not to continue to compete with all the other Pride Celebrations taking place in June.
The Gay Pride Celebration Committee of San Jose, Inc. is a nonprofit, volunteer organization.
For the complete full and a summarized history of PRIDE visit our web: http://www.sanjosepride.com/info/about.html
San Jose Pride 