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Kansas City’s first Pride parade

Lea Hopkins at Kansas City's 2022 Pride parade.
Image Courtesy of Kansas City Pride Community Alliance
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KCUR 89-3
Lea Hopkins at Kansas City's 2022 Pride parade.

Kansas City’s first Pride parade in 1977 was spearheaded by Lea Hopkins, a bold, Black lesbian whose organizing sparked a wider gay rights movement that continues today. But it was only a few weeks after that successful event that Hopkins found herself on the defense again, when a prominent anti-gay activist came on a crusade through town.

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