PRIDE
For NYC Pride, Virtual Event, Symbolic Procession
Coronavirus kept the LGBTQ Pride March off the streets — though not entirely
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
For Brian Heck of Chelsea,
who has volunteered with
Heritage of Pride since
2011, this year’s LGBTQ
Pride March was supposed to be
his shot.
In his fi rst nine years of volunteering,
he had worked on the
massive arches of rainbow-colored
balloons that signal to paradewatchers
that the marchers are
approaching. He later handled
talent who graced the variety of
events that HOP — also known as
NYC Pride — produces in Manhattan
each June.
Last August, Heck was elected to
be the volunteer march director, a
post he assumed after Julian Sanjivan,
who had overseen the march
for a number of years, including for
2019’s humongous Stonewall 50/
WorldPride record-setter, moved
on.
Then came the coronavirus —
which led the city to cancel the numerous
large-scale public gatherings
held each June.
“I was not disappointed,” he explained
just after noon on June 28
as he stood preparing for a symbolic
procession of grand marshalless
grand marshal vehicles fi lled
instead with rainbow arrays of balloons.
“I was disappointed for the
community. But it was much more
important that people stay safe.”
Working with ABC-7, which has
broadcast several hours of the
march each June for several years,
HOP decided to do the symbolic
procession from 25th Street and
Fifth Avenue to the West Village
to bring some feeling of New York’s
streets to the two-hour programming.
“But what’s much more important,”
Heck explained, “are the
powerful messages prepared for
the broadcast.”
He continued, “We are front-lining
Black Lives Matters, to make
sure we show that we stand with
them.”
Even before the Memorial Day
police killing of George Floyd in
Minneapolis, Heck emphasized,
Tangina Stone takes a knee between singing The National Anthem and “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
PAUL SCHINDLER
Brian Heck, HOP’s volunteer march director.
Black lives — and particularly the
epidemic of lethal violence against
transgender women of color —
were a key focus of HOP’s thinking
DONNA ACETO
about the program. In recent
years, he pointed out, the march
has given pride of place up front to
groups representing communities
of color and transgender folks.
And Heck pointed to the proliferation
around the city of “Unity
Flags,” combining the rainbow colors
with black and brown stripes
and the colors of both the Transgender
Flag and the Bisexual
Flag.
The ABC-7 broadcast highlighted
the event’s four grand marshals
— the homeless youth services
group Ali Forney Center, which relinquished
its role and air time to
Black Lives Matter, Victoria Cruz,
a transgender woman born in
Puerto Rico who long served as a
domestic violence counselor at the
New York City Anti-Violence Project
prior to her retirement, Chinese
LGBTQ rights advocate Yanzi
Peng, and Dan Levy, the creator
and star of the hit comedy series
“Shitt’s Creek.”
The broadcast also featured performances
by Janelle Monáe, Billy
Porter, Deborah Cox, Rufus Wainwright,
and more, and appearances
by Wilson Cruz, Angelica Ross,
Gloria Estefan, Mj Rodriguez, and
Margaret Cho, among others.
As Heck was preparing to head
downtown with his symbolic procession,
singer Tangina Stone was
already in front of the Stonewall
Inn in the West Village opening
the broadcast by singing both The
National Anthem and “Lift Every
Voice and Sing,” customarily
thought of as the Black National
Anthem. Between the two songs,
Stone took a knee and raised her
right arm in a fi st.
Several city leaders joined the
symbolic HOP procession at points
along its route. At 25th and Fifth,
Mayor Bill de Blasio, joined by
his wife Chirlane McCray, said,
“What’s different, of course, is we
all can’t be together, which I miss
immediately, right? One of the
most joyous, positive, warm events
of the entire year in New York City
and it’s an event fi lled with solidarity,
fi lled with love, but at the same
time we’re going to make it happen
a different way. The feeling doesn’t
go away just because of the coronavirus,
and there’s actually an even
more powerful feeling of solidarity
this year, in terms of the rights of
LGBTQ people, but also the rights
of Black people, people of color in
this country — there’s sense of solidarity
between all communities
that have had to fi ght and struggle
together.”
At bottom of Fifth Avenue, outside
the 2 Fifth Avenue former
homes of the late Larry Kramer
and Edie Windsor, New York State
Attorney General Letitia James
honored the two as “icons.” She
also reiterated de Blasio’s message
that Pride is a spirit of a community
whether or not it’s out in the
streets.
“We don’t necessarily need to
march” to feel that, James said.
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