By 1985, Gay Pride had become more than a march — it was a declaration. In cities across the U.S. and beyond, Pride meant showing up anyway: in the middle of the AIDS crisis, under political hostility, and in a culture that often preferred silence to visibility.
A 1985 Gay Pride T-shirt wasn’t merch in the modern sense. It was armor, signal, and souvenir all at once. Worn to marches, rallies, bars, house parties, and the next day’s errands, these shirts carried simple messages with enormous weight: we are here, we belong, and we are not going back underground.
