A Gayer Bicentennial Required Legal Intervention

Published on Friday, June 26, 2026

50th Anniversary of Landmark ‘Congress of People with Gay Concerns’ Symposium at the Old State House in Providence

(Providence) Rhode Island Pride turns 50 on June 26, also marking 50 years since gay rights activists were initially barred from organizing a “Congress of People with Gay Concerns” and the state’s first Pride march. In a letter to the Rhode Island Bicentennial Commission on behalf of the group, Reverend Joseph H. Gilbert asked for the same consideration given to other “ethnic groups” holding Bicentennial planning meetings at the Old State House in Providence. The Bicentennial Commission denied his request to use the Old State House for the Congress, but the activists successfully sued for access. This legal victory opened the door to the first state-sanctioned Pride parade and inclusion of gay civil rights in the Bicentennial agenda. 

In 1969, just seven years earlier, a riot between patrons and police at Stonewall Inn ignited the start of the modern gay rights movement. Beginning in 1975, a group of LGBTQ+ Rhode Islanders started planning for the state’s first Gay Pride Week in June the following year – to include a “Congress of People with Gay Concerns,” and a “Gay Pride Parade” in downtown Providence. Activists sought the same recognition afforded to other cultural groups participating in the Bicentennial Commission and its sanctioned activities. 

However, the Bicentennial Commission refused to allow the group to meet at the Old State House or join the Bicentennial Parade, allegedly because the Congress’s “activities [did] not sufficiently relate to the Bicentennial.” In response, activists organized a group called “Toward a Gayer Bicentennial Committee” and sued the Bicentennial Commission for inclusion. On June 25, 1976, presiding Judge Raymond Pettine ruled in the group’s favor, allowing the Congress of People with Gay Concerns symposium and the state’s first Pride parade to take place the following day. Judge Pettine further remarked: 

I cannot help but note the irony of the Bicentennial Commission expressing reluctance to provide a forum for the plaintiffs’ exercise of their First Amendment rights because they might advocate conduct which is illegal. Does the Bicentennial Commission need reminding that, from the perspective of British loyalists, the Bicentennial celebrates one of history’s greatest illegal events?

On June 26, 1976, about 30 people assembled at the Old State House to discuss gay civil rights issues. Later that afternoon, approximately 70 people participated in the first Pride march in downtown Providence. 

Today, the Old State House serves as the headquarters for the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission.