Gay USA (1977) on Netflix
NR19771h 12mDocumentary
On June 26, 1977, twenty-five cameramen film Gay Pride parades across the country. Marchers, drag queens and straight allies are interviewed as the movement faces its first backlash.
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- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.3/10598 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Shot on a single day, June 26, 1977, the documentary gathers footage from Gay Pride parades in San Diego, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York City, recorded by 25 cameramen. Its main focus is San Francisco's Gay Freedom Day Parade, made up of almost 250,000 participants. Interviews with people in the crowds bring lesbian feminists, drag queens, straight allies and critical spectators to the screen, and Pat Parker reads a poem. Anita Bryant's campaign against a Dade County anti-discrimination ordinance is underway, and the film is dedicated to Robert Hillsborough, killed in San Francisco days earlier for being gay. Two young boys speak about equal rights for children in the opening sequence.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Gay USA (1977)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Gay USA is the first American feature-length documentary made by and about LGBTQ people, focused on the gay rights movement.
- Gay USA captures the gay rights movement as it faced its first organized backlash, Anita Bryant's campaign to repeal anti-discrimination protection in Dade County, and Arthur J. Bressan Jr. dedicated the film to Robert Hillsborough, murdered on a San Francisco street on June 22, 1977, for being gay.
- Arthur J. Bressan Jr. conceived the idea for the film while marching in San Francisco on June 7, 1977, against the Dade County referendum. Within nineteen days he had organized film crews throughout the country, and by June 26, eighty-five people were ready with cameras and sound equipment.
- Gay USA cost $8,000, but Bressan said they started with no cash and ordered the film COD; when the raw footage arrived at a Greyhound bus station he called his friends, needing at least $900 to pick it up.
