Pride flags flutter outside The Stonewall Inn in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The door proudly showcases pride written across it in bold letters. After all, this is where Pride began, 50 years ago. The Stonewall Uprising led to the gay rights movement and eventually pride parades around the globe.
The Inn, started by Vincent Bonavia, was often raided by the police. But on June 28, 1969, homeless LGBTQ teens, trans women, lesbians, drag queens, gay men, and allies decided to take a stand. What started out as a routine police raid turned into an uprising on the streets of Greenwich Village. It pioneered a mass movement that spread across the US and the world.
Commemorating the golden jubilee, New York is garbed in hues of pride. Bright rainbow colours have taken over streets, shops and even buildings: from Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden to the Empire State Building and One World Trade Center, everything is lit up.
Stonewall Inn where it all began. Here Stonewall riots of 1969 occurred. The riots are considered to be the most important event leading to the gay liberation movement in the United States.
“New York City is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ rights movement and has played a significant role in the progress the global movement has made. This month, our city hosts WorldPride to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising. Lighting our skyline will remind LGBTQ people around the globe that the city will always be a beacon of hope and a place to call home,” says Bill de Blasio, Mayor of NYC.
All are welcome
According to NYC & Company, the official destination marketing organisation for the five boroughs of New York City, approximately four million visitors, in addition to locals, will witness the events across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.
The Empire State Building in NYC lit up in colours of Pride
Of the visitors NYC & Company surveyed during the event in 2018, 36% said they travelled from outside (with 30% coming from other US states and 6% travelling from outside of the US). Eighty per cent of survey participants reported that they came primarily for Pride-related reasons.
“Around 150k people will be participating in the march. The crowd is incredibly diverse and vibrant, with a lot more international participation this year,” says Cathy Renna, Principal of Target Cue, a public interest communications firm focussing on LGBT-related issues.
The first march in NYC took place in 1970 and was known as the gay liberation march. “This is the 49th pride march here. It has changed very much in size, but the spirit remains the same, bringing the LGBTQIA+ community together, in both celebration and resistance as we continue the fight for equality,” says Renna. This year, the WorldPride Opening Ceremony that took place at the Barclays Center on June 26 and was hosted by Whoopi Goldberg, saw performances by Cyndi Lauper, Billy Porter, Ciara and Daya among others. The other events — such as the NYC Pride March, Stonewall50 Commemoration Rally, Youth Pride — lined up till the Closing Ceremony at Times Square on June 30, will have performances by Princess Nokia, The Veronicas, Melanie C, Sink the Pink, Deborah Cox, and DJ Nhandi among others.
In San Francisco — that gave the US one of the first gay neighbourhoods with Castro District — Pride month is a big, colourful party, with millions coming in from across town, the US and the world, to partake in the festivities. There are a host of quirky parties, educational talks, the march, and events such as San Francisco Strips, where, as the name suggests, singers and dancers go The Full Monty, all for a cause.
Canal Parade at the Amsterdam Gay Pride. The parade is one of the biggest public events in the Netherlands, every year it is visited by more than 400000 people.
One of the latest entrants into the Pride parade scene is Tel Aviv, the first city in Israel to host the gay pride in 1993. It started off when activist Avi Soffer and his partner Avi Robinstein got 14 vehicles, replete with rainbow flags, to honk past Dizengoff Street up to Sheinkin Garden, where a group of LGBT members got together to participate in the event.
“This year’s parade, that took place on June 14 along with large floats, marked the end of a month-long festival, which included TLVFest, the city’s international gay film festival, an LGBTQ cultural line-up of events, drag shows, a special show at NYX (the official Tel Aviv Pride hotel) by the Israeli Opera, and tributes to key historical figures in the LGBTQ community,” says Sammy Yahia, Director, Israel Ministry of Tourism, India and the Philippines.
Pride ambassador
American actor, writer, producer, Neil Patrick Harris was this year’s ‘International Pride Ambassador’. He participated in his first-ever pride parade, along with his actor-chef husband David Burtka.
Over the last decade, Tel Aviv Pride has earned a reputation for the right reasons. It is said to be the largest Pride parade in West Asia. “2017 witnessed 200,000 people from around the world, while in 2018 and 2019 over 250,000 participated,” says Yahia. It has also been voted the world’s ‘Best Gay City’ by GayCities.com and ‘The Most Gay-Friendly City in the World’ by Wow Travel, adds Yahia.
It’s interesting to note that some of the travellers make these events the central focus of their trips. Like Thijs Knoeff, a young Dutchman who travelled for this event, while Offer Nissim, internationally acclaimed DJ and gay-icon, was present to extend his support. And it is not just the LGBTQIA+ community that revels. The colours of Pride are inclusive and reach out to everyone who supports and believes in love, unfettered.
- In 2017, playwright Oscar Wilde was among 50,000 men who were pardoned for homosexual acts that were no longer considered offences under the Policing and Crime Act 2017, informally known as the Alan Turing law.