One million people turn out for New York Pride
At precisely noon on Sunday, June 29, the motorcycle engines from Dykes on Bikes roared their engines and with that, the 39th annual New York City Gay Pride parade kicked off at 52nd Street and Fifth Avenue for the four mile trek through one of the country's most progressive environs.
This day transforms Gotham into a hubbub of pink-inspired Mardi Gras festivities, and according to Heritage of Pride, the group that organizes the massive event, more than 300 organizations, which included religious, school, corporate, activist and AIDS organizations, politicians and even a gay sailing instruction company, and 500,000 participants took part in the event. And an estimated million spectators cheered them on.
This year's grand marshals included Gilbert Baker, the designer of the rainbow flag who is affectionately known as the gay Betsy Ross, and Jeanne Manford, founder of Parents of Gays of Greater New York, a group that later became PFLAG. The LGBT Community Center and transgender actress Candis Cayne, who plays Billy Baldwin's mistress on ABC's "Dirty Sexy Money," also headlined the parade.
Cayne made history as the first trans actress to have a recurring role on prime-time television. She told EDGE from atop her blue convertible she still cannot believe how much has happened over the past year. And Cayne soaked up the attention she garnered as co-grand marshal.
"I am so, so honored," she said.
Participants and spectators alike are often treated to the sexually provocative, the spontaneous and most especially, the hilarious. Take for instance, Miss Columbia, a she, for the day, who wore a Baby Jane dress, Carmen Miranda wig, carrying a live poodle and sporting a beard, both dyed the colors of the rainbow while crowned by a Carmen Miranda wig and a live squawking parrot.
As in recent years, this year's parade was a colorful and enthusiastic celebration of difference and defiance, a crowd so enthused and thrilled, that a mid afternoon thunderstorm was met with laughter and applause on the lower stretch of Fifth Avenue. Many attribute this year's added excitement to recent events in California that further the prospects for marriage for same-sex couples. Governor David Paterson's directive to state agencies to recognize nuptials for gays and lesbians performed outside New York State added to the festive atmosphere.
Paterson himself marched along openly lesbian New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. The historic appearance, which is a first by a sitting governor, offered spectators a symbolic confirmation of how far the movement towards equality for LGBT New Yorkers has come since the first march took place after the 1969 Stonewall Bar riots.
"I'm more than impressed, it speaks volumes that he showed up for this," Manhattan resident Randy Livingston said as he watched the parade with friends at 44th Street. "Not only that, it says a lot about New York."
A pair of tourists from London agreed. They said the parade and Paterson's participation confirmed their belief New York remains a bastion of tolerance compared to the rest of the country.
"It says that in New York at least, people are free to be themselves," one woman, who identified herself as Susan, said.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, state Sen. Tom Duane [D-Manhattan] and Assemblyman Danny O'Donnell [D-Upper West Side] and other politicos marched alongside Paterson. Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum waved a gay flag as she sported a sensible red straw hat.
"This is the only parade I've marched in this year and that's because I feel so strongly about this movement," she said as she noted she feels participation in the march, by both politicians and New Yorkers, sends a clear message to the rest of the country. "I think that because there have been all these progressive moves in California and with Gov. Paterson's directive, that some feel we don't really have to march or show our support any longer. I totally disagree with that.
Gotbaum added she feels the Pride parade remains as important as ever.
"We need to make sure people everywhere understand how important it is that people, whether gay or not, have a right to do things like get married if they want to," she said.
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer also marched in the parade, but other participants pointed to Paterson's directive as they took part.
"I'm a New Yorker and my partner and I have been together for six years," Jeffrey Hartenstein said as he marched with PFLAG. "We want to get married right here in New York-not in some other state, but right here."
Mama Jean Devine, who was a grand marshal in the 1970 parade, rode atop a convertible in this year's parade ahead of the Stonewall veterans. She jokingly asked whether Paterson had worn a skirt at his appearance in this year's march. Devine added she feels LGBT New Yorkers have a reason to celebrate their pride in 2008.
"Everything is going good for us now honey," she said. "We're going to get gay marriage. It's all going to be good."