Ain’t No Rain On The Pride Parade
If you were around Greenwich Village anytime during the end of June, chances are you caught glimpses of flashy colors, costumes and rainbow flags. Gay Pride festivities in New York span an entire week, with parties, parades, rallies, and festivals to celebrate and commemorate a landmark event in gay rights.
This year’s “Pride Week” was awe-inspiring not only in terms of the celebrations put on by the LGBT community, but also in the wider political context of this year’s festivities– especially the parade. With marriage equality a pivotal topic of contention between the gay community and conservatives, this year’s festivities were decidedly more pointed at the issues gays still face, rather than fun and frivolity. It was a widespread hope amongst the gay community that this year’s parade would sway some of the silent or indecisive voices on the issue of gay equality in their favor. The hope for change was even stronger this year than most; adding to the weight of the event was the 40 year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which took place on June 28, 1969, and spawned the Gay Rights Movement in The Village. The riots were, at the time, the gay community’s only response to continued police harassment and raids of known gay bars.
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