Larger than average crowds can be expected at today’s Gay Pride Celebrations and Marches following the historic legalization of Gay Marriage by the New York State Legislature on Friday 25 June 2011.
You can expect larger than average crowds from San Francisco to West Hollywood to Philadelpthia. But the largest – and most boisterous – Celebration of them all will undoubtedly be held in New York City, the legendary birth place of the modern Gay Rights Movement, following the Stonewall Riots on 28 June 1969 in the city’s heavily gay Greenwich Village district.
Lesbian and gay same sex couples are already lining up to tie the knot following the news.
New York is the sixth state in the United States to legalize Gay Marriage. It is already legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is also legal in Washington, DC, and the Coquille Indian Reservation in Oregon on the West Coast.
Proud and Powerful
The theme of this year’s LGBT Celebrations in New York City is Proud and Powerful. The week long event, which got underway last weekend, will climax on 26 June 2011, with a massive march down Fifth Avenue.
The celebration, which is organized by NYC Pride, will undoubtedly have an especially joyous undercurrent this year. Can we expect droves of drag queens in wedding gowns? Not so sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
The Gay Pride March, which began as a civil rights demonstration on the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, will begin at 36th Street and end at Christopher and Greenwich Streets in Greenwich Village.
The route has been shortened this year owing to budgetary restraints.
PrideFest
More than 300,000 people are expected at the pride festivalt, which will take place on Hudson Street between Abingdon Square and West 14th Street and 13th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue. This event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.
Dance on the Pier: Dance 25
Pier 54 at Hudson River Park, between 13th Street and West Street, will be the site of a dance, which will be held from 2.00 pm to 10.30 pm
Openings DJs will be Lina and Vito Fun from New York City. The Closing DJ will be Ana Paula from Rio de Janerio, Brazil. If you don’t already have a ticket, entry will set you back a coll US$125. (Tickdets are selling for US$55 in June.)
Copyright: Michael Taylor Pictured: the Rainbow Flag flies proudly in the breeze over San Francisco’s legendary Harvey Milk Plaza in the city’s heavily gay and lesbian Castro District Photo Credit: Benson Kua of Toronto, Canada, via Wikimedia Commons