Leftover Metrocard Change Infuriates Some
UPDATE: City To Remove 14 Blocks Of Bike Lanes On Bedford Ave.
Hamster Rides The 4 Train
Bouncer Beatdown at Jay-Z's 40/40 Club
2nd Avenue Subway Cooling System Will "Blight" UES
Much to the delight of gay and straight New Yorkers, yesterday's steamy weather meant that there was more reason for marchers in the Gay Pride Parade to go shirtless. If you were downtown, everywhere people would turn there was bound to be a fairly naked, glistening body. New Yorkers enjoyed themselves, and some noted how the parade has become "mainstreamed." The parade was started as to mark the Stonewall uprising in 1969, and some who marched in the first pride parade 36 years ago marched again yesterday.
In the political contingent, Mayor Bloomberg marched, as did Senator Charles Schumer, Reverend Al Sharpton, Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum and a bevy of Democratic mayoral candidates: Fernando Ferrer, Manhattan Beep C. Virginia Fields, and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller. The Mayor said, "The gay pride parade is a chance for lots of New Yorkes to express themselves and lots of people on the sideline to have fun." However, the Mayor has declined to perform gay marriages in the city (or simply give out licenses for them) because they are illegal in NY State - and there's no way Pataki or the Republican-controlled State Senate will change the law anytime soon. The Mayor, who has been supportive of gay rights, has a mixed record with his policy; he's extended benefits to partners of city employees but opposed a law that would require companies the city works with to do the same. The Democratic candidates have more latitude to challenge the Mayor, though Ferrer will probably tread lightly, in order not to offend some more traditional voters in his base.
There's a wonderful set of NYC Pride Parade pictures from drierp on Flickr. And the NY Times had a feature on the Park Slope "queer-oriented but straight friendly" ladies' lounge, Cattyshack.
Photograph from the AP
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I posted some photos of the parade here.
Gay is so over. And, Sex? Sex is for people who can't afford real estate.
Thanks for the complement.
Peter (aka, "drierp")
This parade is not just Gay, its beyond flaming. Better to stay home and not risk blinding myself looking at shirtless guys with man-bulge.
FYI, Hillary marched too.
Actually, in February, State Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohan said that the New York State Constitution guarantees basic freedoms to lesbian and gay people, and that those rights are violated when same-sex couples are not allowed to marry.
This ruling made gay marriage legal in the state of New York. However, Bloomberg *appealed* this ruling. Look it up...
Actually, Blike, while that IS what Ling-Cohan said in her ruling, the ruling would have had only had that effect in New York City -- not the rest of the state -- because that particular lawsuit is against the city only, not the state. No lower court ruling on marriage is ever going to hold for any length of time without being challenged in some way or another, and everyone involved knew that from the get-go. This case or one of the other marriage cases currently underway in New York will have to reach the state's highest court before there's a definitive answer.
is there a rain date for the gay pride parade in new york for 2006?