The Knickerbocker Sailing Association passes the Statue of Liberty during its third-annual Parade of Sails on Sunday, June 24. The LGBT sailing group held a Pride regatta, or boat race, two days earlier. For more Pride images, see page 3. Photo: Craig Skelton.
Thousands united Nov. 12 in front of a Mormon temple in Midtown and marched to Columbus Circle to protest Proposition Hate, er…Proposition 8.
A new generation of activists unites via the Internet. Log on and Join the Impact.
A multimedia SAGE campaign makes LGBT elders more visible—even on New York’s subways and buses.
How will his departure affect LGBT issues in Albany?
Industry leaders powwow to raise questions about the persecution of clubland.
Anti-gay hate crimes are on the rise across the U.S.—homophobic incidents have even surfaced at a local production of play “Judy and Me.”
Spurred by a gay marriage ban in California, simultaneous protests were
held Nov. 14 across the nation. In Manhattan, 4,000 rallied at City Hall.
Next up: A Dec. 10 event called A Day Without a Gay.
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Friday, June 29, 2007
NEW YORK (AP) — As in past years, there was exhibitionism on display as the city’s gay parade inched down Fifth Avenue and into Greenwich Village: Revelers gyrated in bikini briefs and pranced in spike heels.
But the placement of Christian, Jewish and Buddhist religious organizations near the front of Sunday’s march—ahead of AIDS service groups and political advocacy groups—gave them unaccustomed prominence and lent gravity to the often outrageous event that celebrates the night gay bar patrons resisted a police raid.
“We stand for a progressive religious voice,” said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of New York City’s Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. “Those who use religion to advocate an anti-gay agenda I believe are blaspheming God’s name.”
Kleinbaum, who heads the world’s largest predominantly gay synagogue, and the Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church, were the parade’s grand marshals, waving from his-and-hers convertibles.
This year’s march was one of the best attended in recent years, with estimates topping a million people, said Dennis Spafford, media director for Heritage of Pride, the umbrella organization behind the march and other Pride week events such as the rally and two pier dances.
Spafford attributes the high attendance to this year’s choice of grand marshals and the “message sent about the importance of spirituality and religion in our community.”
“To bring that message home, we moved the spiritual/ religion section to the first section of the march,” he said, referring to one of the 15 sections that comprise in the parade. “What most people don’t know is that the spiritual/religion section is often the largest of the parade—it’s significant every year.” That section alone included 30 different groups, ranging from Buddhists to Quakers.
The march took place days after the New York State Assembly passed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, which Gov. Eliot Spitzer supports.
The bill’s sponsor, Assembly member Daniel O’Donnell, along with his colleagues Dick Gottfried, Matthew Titone, Deborah Glick and Micah Kellner, marched down Fifth Avenue together. They joined the New York Blade float, Stonewall Democrats and Marriage Equality New York.
The march showcased the variety of social and political agendas within the LGBT movement. The Radical Homosexual Agenda and a queer contingent called the Pink and Black Bloc marched to protest a January 2007 law requiring the assembly of any group of 50 or more people on a public street to obtain a permit. They also criticized gay City Council Speaker Christine Quinn for backing the law.
“Queer liberation goes beyond the marriage issue,” said Tim Doody, a member of the Radical Homosexual Agenda. “We’re inspired by queer liberation movement of the ’60s and ’70s and the broader social issues they had.”
But it was the religious organizations among parade-goers that made this year’s event a bit different. The gay Roman Catholic group Dignity had a float and a giant rainbow flag. Jeff Stone, secretary of the New York chapter, said he was hopeful that the church would someday change its stance opposing homosexuality.
“We see that the opinion of ordinary Catholics is changing,” he said. “Eventually what happens at the grass roots percolates up in the church.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg marched with Quinn and other elected officials including Lt. Gov. David Paterson.
Toni Cinanni of Perth, Australia, said she was surprised at the prominence of the church groups. “I thought the religious groups had hijacked the parade,” she said. “I couldn’t put it together, religion and sexuality.”
Trenton Straube contributed to this story.
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