The staggered start times should allow people to participate in both marches, which is what Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum plans to do. “Our community has had to deal with a lot in the last 50 years, and we have always found a way to unleash our anger while at the same time celebrating who we are and our diversity and our unapologetic pride.”Īctivists also staged an alternative New York City march in 1994, accusing official parade organizers of downplaying the AIDS crisis, among other issues. “This is a debate that has existed for as long as Pride has existed,” said James Fallarino, a member of the executive board of Heritage of Pride, which stages the main march. Past marches have seen colorfully costumed dancers sharing the route with groups protesting violence against transgender people or a lack of AIDS funding. Supporters note that the main Pride parade still has a notable protest element. “The reason we’re having these discussions is because so many people have come out. “I’m not nostalgic for the bad old days, to be totally honest,” she said.
#GAY PRIDE NYC 2015 PARADE FREE#
“The reality is that those sponsors and partners help the march happen and help make it free for tens of thousands of people,” Renna said. NYC Pride’s annual budget for the march and some two dozen other Pride month events is about $12 million, including mandatory payments to the police department. “We need to acknowledge not only our victories we need to mourn our losses, and we need to take a strong stand against those who would diminish or demean us.”īut the main march has grown much too large to be staged without security precautions or corporate support, said Cathy Renna, a spokeswoman for NYC Pride. But I think that right now there is more than a celebration that needs to be had for the Pride parade,” said Tom Viola, executive director of the theater world charity Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS, which has donated $25,000 to the Queer Liberation March.
“Is this about our liberation? Or is this just one more commercial activity, like the Macy’s (Thanksgiving) parade?”Īnd, backers of the Liberation March say, the NYC Pride March can simply be too festive, letting celebration drown out anger over continued bigotry toward LGTBQ people. “The question is, what is this about?” King said. Reclaim Pride supporters also claim that the presence of so many corporate floats in premier spots forces grassroots contingents to the back of the line.Ĭharles King, the CEO of Housing Works, an AIDS advocacy organization that’s handling the finances for the Reclaim Pride Coalition, said marchers from his group were placed so far back last year it was completely dark by the time they finished parading. Police barricades will keep marchers separate from the throngs of cheering spectators, as they do at other large New York City gatherings like the St. There are 677 contingents marching in the larger parade, each of which had to register months in advance. A related closing ceremony in Times Square will feature a performance by Melissa Etheridge. It will also pass by the Stonewall Inn before concluding in the Chelsea neighborhood. The larger NYC Pride March will step off at noon with corporate sponsors including T-Mobile, MasterCard and Delta Air Lines. at the Stonewall Inn and end with a rally in Central Park. The upstart queer march is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. Police Commissioner James O’Neill apologized this month for the Stonewall raid, but organizers of the alternative march deemed the apology too little, too late. They complain that today’s march is dominated by corporate floats and is too heavily policed by the same department that raided the Stonewall in 1969. The main Pride march, the dissidents say, has strayed too far from its roots as a ragtag liberation demonstration celebrating an act of resistance.
Organizers of the insurgent Queer Liberation March say they expect 10,000 or more at their event, which they say will have a protest vibe.