War, rain and rainbows at New York City Pride

Sometimes it was the weather and sometimes the war. These two circumstances came to the fore during Heritage of Pride (HOP) NYC Pride Marchthe one Theme: “Reflect. Strengthen. Unite.”

Many politicians marched ahead of the main parade and marched early down Fifth Avenue. Among the marching elected officials were Governor Kathy Hochul, Attorney General Letitia James, Mayor Eric Adams and Council Member Erik Böttcher. Senator Chuck Schumer with a participant in the main parade, proudly told the crowd that he was the first senator to walk in the parade. He spoke in favor of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ families and mentioned through the megaphone that his daughter Alison Schumer and her wife Elizabeth Weiland had a son named Henry.

The change in the way some politicians march before the main parade was implemented in 2022. New this year were double rows of posts along Fifth Avenue, creating an additional barrier between the crowd and the marchers and narrowing the procession space.

All this excitement every last Sunday in June in New York is meant to commemorate the events of 1969 at the Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street. Just a few days ago, a new visitor center for the Stonewall National Monument was opened next to the Stonewall Inn, with President Joe Biden’s participation.

There were many great marshals this year, and HOP announced more than a dozen: Baddie Brooks, DaShawn Usher, Eshe Ukwell, Michelle Visage, Miss Major, Robin Drake and Raquel Willis.

Willis, a transgender activist and media personality, had posed with her mother and sister along Fifth Avenue in the shadow of the Empire State Building, waving both a Palestinian flag and the pink, white and blue transgender flag.

Willis expressed her respect and gratitude for her role as Grand Marshal and described the long journey she had made along New York’s most important processional route.

“I’m a black trans woman from Augusta, Georgia, from the South,” Willis said. “And so it’s incredible to get this recognition for my work and my presence. As a kid, I never imagined that I could live so freely and walk the streets so confidently. But I can do this because of all of our ancestors who fought before me, those at the Stonewall Inn, those before the Stonewall riots and beyond. And I just want to be a bridge between their work and the work of the next generations.”

When it comes to Pride, Willis said, you can’t discuss it without talking about resistance to state violence and brutality.

“Queer and trans people have always been criminalized in the United States and elsewhere,” Willis said. “So when I think about the fight for queer and trans liberation, I know it’s connected to everyone who bears the brunt of oppression. And I think of course of our families in Gaza and in Palestine whose lives have just been destroyed and stolen in the name of white supremacy and so many other systems. And so, for me, it all ties together: state violence that has to stop. We have to invest in life and turn away from death. Period.”

The effects of another war preoccupied Maxim Ibadov of the group RUSALGBTQ+based in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. Ibadov placed Brighton Beach Pride flags on the side of a truck that was plastered with the names of countries in the former Soviet sphere of influence and hung a giant blue and yellow banner declaring solidarity with Ukraine.

“The war really divides the community and many LGBTQ people in Russia are usually the ones who follow more democratic, liberal views and are usually the opposition leaders,” Ibadov, the group’s coordinator, told Gay City News. “Many of them had to leave the country when the war started because they knew there would soon be homophobic and transphobic laws.”

Ibadov spent Pride Sunday with many protesters who were refugees and asylum seekers and who were participating in their first parade. expressed concern about Putin’s war against Ukraine – not only for Ukraine and Russia, but for the entire post-Soviet region.

“If Putin wins and takes over Ukraine, non-profit organizations like Kiev Pride (and) Kharkiv Pride will cease to exist,” Ibadov said. “LGBTQ activists in Ukraine will be imprisoned. And it will be a serious setback for the LGBTQ community in the entire post-Soviet space.”

Creating art in the wake of violent extremism was the motto of a group of Orlando protesters promoting a new off-Broadway play called From hereabout the impact of the mass murder at Pulse nightclub on the Florida city on June 12, 2016. Donald Rupe, founder of the Renaissance Theatre Company, told Gay City News that the play “is about many things. It’s about a chosen family and Orlando’s reaction to the Pulse shooting… and how Orlando has changed as a result of this terrible tragedy.”

Orlando was also represented in the form of Disney. They were just one of many companies handing out wristbands, bags and fans – probably the most popular in the sweltering heat of late June. Other companies included Kiehl’s, Deutsche Bank, Chase, City, Delta, JetBlue, United and many others.

One spectator, Grey from Brooklyn, watched the parade in front of the new visitor center.

“It’s just so iconic and we’ve been waiting for this for so long,” Grey said. “It’s just beautiful for New York. We needed this.”

At around 2:30 p.m., another riot broke out on Christopher Street, about a block away, when several activists protesting against the war in Gaza gathered in front of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) floats and blocked his path. Some of the activists smeared themselves with red paint as they sat over banners calling for the liberation of Palestine and handed out leaflets.

Many in the crowd joined in the melodic chants of “Free, Free Palestine” and “Shut it Down,” including some on the HRC car, who incorporated these and other words into the queer anthems that the vehicle blared loudly down the narrow street.

The New York Police Department, including at least one officer adorned with NYPD community rainbow patches, arrived to arrest and zip tie protesters. Police forced most journalists, including this one, out of the area to prevent clear photographs of the arrests.

The parade moved quickly until around 4:30 p.m., when Mother Nature made her presence known and showered the participants and the crowd with rain. People opened their umbrellas and sought shelter under scaffolding or in numerous bars in Greenwich Village.

Preliminary estimates by the organizers suggest that there will be 25,000 participants in the march and two million spectators along the route.

That’s a lot of pride.