This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of Kansas City’s Pridefest.

The event, hosted by the nonprofit Kansas City Pride Community Alliance, typically draws thousands to Theis Park each June to celebrate and support LGBTQ rights in Kansas City. But it was not always that way.

The first Pride marches in the U.S. were held in June 1970 on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising in New York. The movement quickly began to spread across the country.

Kansas City’s first Pride Festival in 1975 was organized activist groups like the Gay People’s Union and the Kansas City Women’s Liberation Union. It featured picnics, dancing, live performances and community workshops.

It wasn’t until March of 1977 that Kansas City’s first Pride parade would be organized by Lea Hopkins. It was a sma

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