A conversation with Donaciano Martinez, GLBT activist

A civil rights activist since the 1960s, Donaciano Martinez is one of Colorado's greatest natural resources. I was fortunate to have the chance recently to talk to him about his memories of Denver's first PrideFest and how the event has changed over the years.






















Drew: What do you remember about the very first PrideFest in Denver?
Donaciano: Well the first one was in 1975 and it was basically sponsored by the Imperial Court and the Gay Coalition of Denver. They were the two main organizations in Denver at that time. The Imperial Court was the one that did the bulk of the publicity. They went all over the bars and even up to Colorado Springs to spread the word. It was basically just a picnic in Cheesman Park and for those of us that had been activists since the ‘60s, who were accustomed to marching in the streets, we were very disappointed that the event was going to be just a picnic. However we felt that it was at least a start, bringing people together for a picnic even though we would have preferred to march in the streets. But that didn’t happen that first year. We set up a couple tables and had a few posters and in those days the park was always packed on the weekends. Back in the '70s before AIDS it was like wall-to-wall people and everybody came over and they thought we were going to stir up some trouble. It was a lot of the gay guys and a few lesbians, the women were very separate from the men up until the late 70s in Denver, a lot of the lesbians didn’t trust gay men or men in general and were very separatist. So it was mostly men. That’s the way it was back then but a lot of them were curious. They were just there to have fun but they were curious and slowly worked their way over to, I want to say, the north side of the park, not up by the pavilion, and we got a lot of curiosity-seekers coming over to check things out and we would talk to them and they would just panic to hear us talk about a march in the streets but actually the concept was not really new. Gay liberation groups from all over the state had already converged on Denver and had marched in protest against the war and we marched openly as a contingent and that was the first time that gays and lesbians had ever marched in the streets of Denver.

What was the mood like? Festive or political?
Well, it was a picnic and the picnic went on for three or four hours and they had beer and that kind of thing but there were no speakers and it didn’t really have a political tone to it. That didn’t come until a year later, in 1976, when we really took it to the streets. I’d say there were about a thousand people that first year. It’s hard for me estimate but that's what I would say and that was the beginning. It was probably 95 percent men marching that first year and then 1977 was a very stormy Pride event because a lot of the lesbian separatists were starting to come around and they did not like the drag queens. They felt the way that drag queens depicted women was so offensive that they basically were saying 'no drag queens allowed.' That was the firm position, they would not allow it but with the Imperial Court and others into drag they finally said 'ok, if you guys want to dress up as women you have to walk all the way from Cheesman Park in your high heels and see what it’s really like for women.' It kind of set the stage for what would eventually turn out to be a confrontation so that was kind of the tone of it. It was a real thorny issue and then the lesbian feminists wanted to call it a march and the Imperial Court and the more moderate men wanted to call it a parade and that was another bone of contention.

How would you say PrideFest has changed over the years?
Nowadays it’s more commercialized and expensive. In the early days we never charged any contingent to march, you just showed up and marched. However, as it began to grow they needed to organize it a little bit more. It’s gotten huge so now you have to have some method of organizing, you can’t just show up and march. And the prices for everything are so steep. I know the money goes to The Center and other non-profits but the prices still seem a little steep. The concept of having to pay to march in the parade is very foreign to me. As an elderly activist I feel that any march in the streets for civil rights should be free. And then when you get down to the festival the prices are very steep to buy food and alcohol but that’s the same as things like People’s Fair or Cinco de Mayo.

As a longtime GLBT activist, what message do you have for members of Colorado's GLBT community about PrideFest?
Just continue going because it’s a very important event to have in Denver and throughout the United States. I hope that maybe some time in future years it might get back to being more of a grassroots event and I wish that for Cinco de Mayo as well. I guess I just liked the events better back when they were simpler and smaller and everybody had access, financially, to get to them. I hope they get more noncommercial down the road and I think that it is possible as people begin to achieve more civil rights thanks to what our forefathers and foremothers did and went through and brought to the table. We can revisit those issues and see if it’s possible to have an event like that in the 2000s where people don’t have to pay to participate and where we can revisit the principals and ideals that people were bringing to the table in ‘76 and ‘77 and ’78.

Donaciano Martinez is the co-founder of La Gente Unida , an organization serving the needs of GLBT Latinas and Latinos in the Denver and Colorado area.