The floats were distinctly more sober than the non-corporate marchers, with the exception of a rocket ship for K-Y lubricant, which suggested something other than a spaceship.
#GAY PRIDE NYC 2014 PARADE FREE#
Kiehl’s, a beauty product line, gave out free samples “Pride in Flight” was on the Delta marchers’ shirts, and T-shirts Walmart hurled into the crowd had rainbows on them. Hilton, Diet Coke, Vitamin Water, Dasani, Walmart and Delta Air Lines sent contingents or floats down the pride parade route, some offering beverages and other gifts to the crowds, others just marching It was hardly the lone corporate vehicle. On a float for American Express a drag queen spoke into a microphone: “American Express is accepted everywhere, I’m accepted most places.” Good things come out of bad on the American Express Pride Float. “It gives me chills.”Ī police vehicle passed with the department’s initials painted in many colors, followed by a fire truck with someone hanging off the side door, sequins blazing. “The protection they’re providing, they’re out here in the crowd,” he said. The support of the New York Police Department this year. He said he had attended between 25 and 30 pride parades since then, and was overwhelmed by Burris moved to New York from Phoenix in 1969 and said he took part in the events at Stonewall Inn. “We had no idea the beauty that would be here today,” Burris’s partner died 12 years ago he said he would not have believed the changes that would come to pass over the past decades. I’d dump the ashes and they’d go in the air,” he paused, rubbing his hands together, catching his breath.
I put theirĪshes in the Hudson River and the Grand Canyon. We’d call the parents, and some of them just hung up on us. After they died, we had to decide what to do with the bodies.
Doctors were covered from head to toe like “I’m thinking of all of the friends I lost in the ’80s,” said John Burris, 74, as he watched the march. Mourning is a theme of this year’s parade, but it is not a new one for the event. “It’s a double dose of homophobia and Islamophobia, and it’s got to “People don’t understand what we’re facing as a community,” said Mr. Ramdass explained that outside of the parade, gay Muslims face extraordinary bigotry. Diaz, who is straight, said her husband felt some misgivings about her marching because of safety concerns. We need to wake up, there is homophobia in our own community,” she said. “This is a conversation we have to have internally as Muslims. Observing Ramandan, she was fasting and was parched on the hot parade route.īut she was determined nonetheless to march. The march was especially profound for Barza Diaz, 28, because it was taking place during the holy month of Ramadan. Ramdass marched with representatives from Muslims for Progressive Values, a group that advocates for the traditional Islamic values of social justice Proudly waving a rainbow banner above his head, Mr.