PRIDE
Heritage of Pride Hosts Limited In-Person March
Annual march inches back after getting impacted by COVID last year
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
Thousands of LGBTQ
people fl ooded the
streets in the sweltering
summer heat on
June 27 to celebrate the 51st annual
NYC Pride March and related
events.
The march commenced in-person
and aired live on ABC 7 at
noon along East 26th Street between
Sixth Avenue and Broadway
and concluded at Christopher
Street and Greenwich Street. Heritage
of Pride (HOP), or NYC Pride,
launched the event under the theme
“The Fight Continues” to condemn
racial injustice and emphasize the
ways COVID-19 exacerbated disparities
among LGBTQ people of
color. Although it was limited, this
marked the fi rst in-person march
by NYC Pride since organizers went
virtual last year due to the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic.
It was one of two main Pride events
held in New York City on June 27,
along with the Reclaim Pride Coalition’s
Queer Liberation March.
Three of the six grand marshals
appeared at the ceremony, including
out transgender model Aaron
Rose Philip; Ceyenne Doroshow, a
performer and founder of GLITS,
an LGBTQ grassroots organization;
and Demetre Daskalakis, who
is the director of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s
Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention
and previously worked in the New
York City Health Department.
During a press conference ahead
of the march, Philip, a disability advocate,
underscored the importance
of visibility at Pride demonstrations.
“I am just a girl from Antigua by
way of the Bronx — to be seen and
held by my community like this is
everything to me,” she said. “My
community is why I get up in the
morning. They are why I have the
drive to do what I do… I aspire to
make sure you’re seen properly.”
New York State Attorney General
Letitia James and Senate Majority
Leader Chuck Schumer, New York’s
senior senator, also took the stage
to honor Pride. Schumer boasted
The Rainbow balloons lift over the Heritage of Pride march in Manhattan on June 27.
Folks enjoying Pride near Stonewall.
about declaring his support for
marriage equality years before
it became the law of the land in
2015 and added that his backing
of LGBTQ rights is buoyed by his
support for his out queer daughter,
Alison, who married fi ancée Elizabeth
Weiland in 2018.
Following the press conference,
HOP Co-Chair André Thomas said
organizers were tight-lipped on plans
for a physical celebration in order to
protect the safety of spectators.
“We are still coming out of the
pandemic, and we still have people
who are not vaccinated,” Thomas
said. “Having a large mass crowd,
even if it’s outside — there’s still a
risk to some people…the fi ght still
continues against COVID.”
Thomas also addressed HOP’s
MICHAEL LUONGO
MICHAEL LUONGO
controversial decision to ban uniformed
offi cers from annual festivities.
The policy, which is in effect
until at least 2025, comes against a
national reckoning with racial injustice
as well as incidents of police violence
targeting LGBTQ individuals.
“They can take their uniforms
off; I can’t take off my Black skin.
A trans person can’t change who
they are,” Thomas said. “When it
comes to participating, we can say
to take off that symbol that is triggering
for so many people.”
Following the announcement
last month, the Gay Offi cers Action
League (GOAL) ripped HOP
offi cials, stating that they took
“the low road by preventing their
fellow community members from
celebrating their identities.” Days
before the kick-off of the march,
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea
criticized the ban.
“I personally don’t agree with it,
and I’m disappointed,” Shea said
in a June 24 press conference.
In responding to Shea’s comments,
Thomas recalled a protest
in April that erupted into chaos
when the NYPD violently roughed
up protesters after a monument
was defaced in Manhattan.
“The NYPD commissioner back
in 2019 apologized for the events of
Stonewall in 1969, but there’s 50
years of history between now and
then of incidents that continue to
happen up through April of this
year that hasn’t been addressed,”
Thomas said. “We are not asking
them to go on an apology tour. We
are asking them to say, ‘we know
we have done harm to your community
— to Black people to Brown
people, to trans people.'”
During the march, the Caribbean
Equality Project, an LGBTQ advocacy
group in New York for queer
and trans Caribbeans, walked in
the parade with traditional carnival
outfi ts. For attendees, the march
provided a safe space for LGBTQ
individuals who have lost gathering
places due to the pandemic.
Frankie Ramos, 26, told Gay
City News that this is his fi rst pride
as an out transgender man.
“I have really bad social anxiety
because of my dysphoria, so coming
to a place where I know no one
is going to judge me is great,” he
said. “It lets me be able to be me
and not hide in a closet anymore.”
Among other events produced by
HOP on June 27 included Pridefest,
which featured queer vendors,
music, and food on Fourth Avenue
between 13th and Ninth Street.
Myrna Morris, a 61-year-old
butch woman of Manhattan, attended
Pridefest with her wife of
more than a decade. Morris has
been attending Pride events for 30
years and said events like this foster
strength in her identity.
“It’s important to show people
that we are people too,” she said.
“You should never judge no one
for who they are.”
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