A little lie led to Denver's first gay & lesbian march

Denver is celebrating the 50th anniversary of PrideFest. The celebration started as a small gathering in a park. Now it's turned into the third largest festival in the nation.

PrideFest is known as a big, boisterous party wrapped in a rainbow. It's where hundreds of thousands of people come out in June for the cause.

"It's so exciting to see all the different corners of the community coming together and celebrating," one PrideFest attendee told CBS News Colorado.

Fifty years ago, PRIDE had a humbler beginning. It was started by a small group of activists who were organizing the community.

"We were sitting at a board meeting and someone said, 'Why don't we have a parade like they do in New York?' I said, 'I don't know. Let me go down and see if we can get one,'" said Christopher Sloan, one of those original organizers.

Sloan was at the heart of the effort. His name is on the permit for the first official march in 1976.

"They said we could have a march, and I told them that it was a civil rights march. I didn't tell them that it was gay or lesbian," Sloan told CBS News Colorado's Michelle Griego.

"Why? Why didn't you tell them?" Griego asked.

"I was pretty sure I wouldn't get it if I did. Mayor (William H.) McNichols was not a real friend of the community. Most of Denver was not a real friend of the community," Sloan explained.

He described an atmosphere of blatant discrimination and being targeted by police.

"If you were in a gay bar and touched another person on the shoulder, and a vice squad was there, you could get arrested, your picture would go in the paper, you'd lose your job, you'd lose your apartment and that was what it was like 50 years ago," Sloan said.

"I mean you're talking about 1979: 'The City of Denver is Victimized by Homosexuals,'" said Griego, as she read one of the newspaper headlines that Sloan has kept over the years.

"As you look at the old headlines and stuff, it sometimes gets scary," Sloan responded.

To be gay, Sloan said he had to walk away from his wife, his child, his parents, his entire support system. He stepped into the shoes of Christi Layne and built a new family within the gay community.

"We started the Community Center with $35. A friend of mine raised the first $35. It was for a dream -- to have someone sit behind a desk and tell us where we could find a doctor, find a lawyer, and get just the basic necessities," he explained.

Now The Center on Colfax has a multimillion-dollar facility and dozens of employees.

"One of the things we were doing often here was about every four weeks a kegger would happen right over there on the corner," he said pointing over at the pavilion at Cheesman Park.

The parties turned into fundraisers to help friends in need.

"We paid for funerals, part of funerals, sometimes we paid to help somebody get an apartment," Sloan recalled.

Those parties -- also because the foundation for PrideFest -- were an occasion for this close-knit community to show a united front and send a clear message.

"What you require of us is that we stand up and that we say, 'Yes, we are different and yes, we are beautiful, and yes, we are good.' And if you will listen to us, we will form a mirror for you in ways that you can't be mirrors for each other," said an activist at the 1979 Pride march.

It's a message that echoes across the decades and draws more support and strength with each passing year.

"Our life and our lives are ours. Their lives and their loves are theirs. That's the equality and that's the commonality, and try to understand the differences," Sloan said.

"What do you want people to know about the community?" Griego asked.

"Time to come home. Time to take care of each other. Time to spread that passion we have for understanding other people because that's what we asked of them … to understand us," Sloan responded.

Sloan told Griego that he feels like the movement has come a long way, but there's still more work to do.

Denver PrideFest 2024 is Saturday, June 22 and Sunday, June 23. CBS Colorado staff and talent are excited to be walking in the parade on Sunday morning to support the cause.