Grand Marshals Include Dan Levy of “Schitt’s Creek”
Ali Forney Center, Victoria Cruz, Yanzi Peng also honored in June 28 broadcast
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
There may be no LGBTQ
Pride March in Manhattan
on the last Sunday
in June this year, but
that doesn’t mean that there won’t
be grand marshals. Heritage of
Pride (also known as NYC Pride),
the producer of the annual march,
announced that a virtual celebration
aired on WABC Channel 7 will
feature grand marshals Dan Levy,
the inspired showrunner and star
of “Schitt’s Creek,” the Ali Forney
Center, which provides housing
and social services to LGBTQ
youth, Yanzi Peng, a human rights
activist who is executive director
of LGBT Rights China, and queer
rights activist Victoria Cruz, a retired
domestic violence counselor.
Levy just completed the sixth
and fi nal season of “Schitt’s Creek,”
a Canadian sitcom where he plays
the grown son of a rich family
suddenly down on their luck and
forced to live in a rundown motel
in the eponymous town. Levy created
and wrote the show, which
also starred his father, Eugene
Levy, and Catherine O’Hara, both
brilliant comedic actors whose pioneering
work included “SCTV” and
the fi lms “Waiting for Guffman,” “A
Mighty Wind,” and “Best in Show.”
➤ GOAL & GMHC, from p.16
“We’re always involved in community
events whenever we’re
asked,” Detective Investigator
Brian Downey, the GOAL president
explained, “whether to work
the door for a ball or provide food
for the KiKi Coalition Youth Pride
Fest.”
Within GOAL, Downey explained,
Detective Specialist Mike
Smertiuk, the group’s treasurer,
has a particular passion for community
service involving youth
and AIDS. Just prior to the state
going on lockdown, the group had
committed to delivering toiletries
on a monthly basis to the Ali Forney
Center, which provides housing
and social services to homeless
Dan Levy, with the cast of “Schitt’s Creek,” including Catherine O’Hara, Annie Murphy, and Eugene Levy.
“Schitt’s Creek” has been lauded
for its compelling plot line featuring
Dan Levy, who is gay and plays
a gay character embracing his fi rst
meaningful loving relationship.
“The NYC Pride March is such
a pillar of our community and I
LGBTQ youth. With shortages of
such goods hitting area stores,
follow-up on that service has been
diffi cult for GOAL.
When Smertiuk learned about
the GMHC on the Go effort, “he
jumped all over it,” according to
Downey.
Almost two dozen GOAL members
were joined by their Fire-
FLAG/ EMS peers and several
guys from Boxers.
GOAL has been working with
GMHC for several years, Downey
said, explaining, “It’s a cause we
believe in.”
Doing this service this week,
though, has the added benefi t of
bringing together LGBTQ law enforcement
and public safety offi cers
unable to fi nd other ways of getting
INSTAGRAM/ INSTADANJLEVY
am incredibly honored to be recognized
alongside the other grand
marshals on its 50th anniversary,”
Levy said. “While the physical circumstances
are less than ideal,
our community has always come
together in the face of adversity.”
together during the COVID-19 crisis.
“We’re going to use these opportunities
to be around one another,”
Downey said. “We need that release.
There is that camaraderie.
So many people said, ‘I’m so glad
to see you.’”
For some GOAL members, he
added, the group is something of a
lifesaver.
“With so many of our members
in family situations that aren’t
good, where they’re harassed and
abused, at least this type of situation
would give the release they
need,” Downey said.
GOAL and FireFLAG/ EMS
members, of course, are essential
workers and they are on the frontlines
of all sorts of unprecedented
PRIDE
The Ali Forney Center, named
for a gender-nonconforming youth
murdered in Harlem in 1997, was
founded in 2002 and now serves
nearly 1,400 youths annually
through a 24-hour drop-in center
providing more than 70,000
meals, medical and mental health
services at an on-site clinic, and a
scattered-site housing program.
LGBT Rights China’s Yanzi Peng
has, since 2011, hosted the China
Rainbow Media Awards in Beijing,
recognizing outstanding achievement
in print, online, and video
coverage of the LGBTQ community.
Victoria Cruz, who was born in
Puerto Rico and moved to Brooklyn
as a small child, came out as
transgender as a youth with the
support of her family. Featured in
David France’s 2017 documentary
“The Death and Life of Marsha P.
Johnson,” Cruz joined the Anti-Violence
Project staff in 1997, where
she counseled domestic violence
survivors. In 2012, Attorney General
Eric Holder recognized Cruz
with a National Crime Victim Service
Award.
The Channel 7 broadcast, from
noon to 2 p.m. on June 28, will
include performances by Janelle
Monáe, Deborah Cox, Billy Porter,
and Luísa Sonza.
challenges in the city right now.
For Downey, COVID-19 has a more
personal resonance, who became
ill with the virus.
“It wasn’t sickest I’ve ever been,”
he said, “but it was a very scary experience.”
Downey experienced tightness
in his chest, two migraines a day,
and couldn’t taste or smell for six
weeks. He said he was “lucky,”
since he did not require hospitalization,
a fact he appreciates especially
because he did have to drop
into a hospital for a chest x-ray.
“Being in that ER, it was something
I’ve never seen before,”
Downey said. “Watching all the
people coming in. Some of them
couldn’t get a sentence out. It was
terrifying.”
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