Video: Last Night's Gay Marriage Celebration Outside Stonewall

Reacting to the passage of same-sex marriage in New York, a celebration brews outside the Stonewall Inn (AP)

Moments after the final vote was handed down and the marriage equality act was passed 33-29, we followed reports that revelers were gathering in front of the Stonewall Inn in the West Village. By 11:30 a dense crowd of around 600 had packed in front of Kettle of Fish and Stonewall, herded down Stonewall Place by police officers and barricades along the edge of Christopher Park. While the occasional cheer broke out amidst George Michael basslines, the mood seemed to be one of deep, mellow, contemplative satisfaction.

Video by reader Tiffany Peckosh

Photographer Terry Richardson, walking the crowd hand in hand with a lady friend, said it was "awesome," while a line of drag queens told everyone in their path to "watch out, we're legal!" British tourists staying with a friend in the West Village asked us if the law's passage meant that anyone in the United States could be married, to which we embarrassingly replied "no." Perhaps it was this sense of unfinished business—to the people outside the six states that afford equal rights to all their citizens— that made the celebration more low key. Or maybe people just weren't drunk enough, although the liquor store on Stonewall Pl. seemed to be doing brisk business.

As people took swigs from their brown bags and shamelessly made out in the crowd, the police presence was nonchalant. A tipster passed us the below video of the police yielding to the crowd and shouts of "Our streets!" and it would be hard to imagine the NYPD provoking any conflict on such a harmless, jubilant crowd.

In the midst of the happy scrum, we heard a tipsy woman tell her companions that "This is like, history happening right here you guys." Three days from the 42nd anniversary of the painful birth of the gay rights movement in the United States, everyone outside Stonewall was there to experience a piece of that history, only this would have a much happier ending. And fire-throwers.

John Del Signore contributed to this report.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Christopher Robbins in News on June 25, 2011 10:50 AM

Comments [rss]

Howard Des Chenes

This was the annual Drag March, which has been going on for almost two decades, and was unrelated to the vote.

Philip Paul

This celebration started with the Drag March, an 18 year tradition that has nothing to do with gay marriage or any other assimilationist tactics. We drag marchers were the ones who staked out the territory by pushing the police back to the corner. Even then there were normal gays in suits ready to use the radical backdrop to tell their story. But the music, the fire spinners and the fabulousness will be in front of Stonewall every year, the Friday before Pride, telling a story that has nothing to do with monogamy, conformity or compliance.

heartbeatdown

Looks like a gay old time

proudliberal1947

Well New York fell, lets see if the Courts honor the wish of the people or are they on the TAKE from their corporate buddies that OWN them, the christian Morons of the right will be out with their usual Hate and Fear mongering, threatening their make believe deity will strike them down, oh hum.

Now that New York fell, if California follows suit the rest of the Country is in and finally one more piece of hate and Black mail is NO LONGER available to the Hate and Fear Mongering right has one less tool to beat innocent people up with.

N ow any one, have a clue how we can make the Hate and Fear mongering christian legislated out of exisitance, we know they are TOTALLY and COMPLETELY evil, is that enough to start banning them.

turt

the police didn't yield to the harmless, jubilant crowd... they tried to clear the street way before anyone was celebrating anything to do with marriage, hit a kid with their car, and encountered fierce ass queens unwilling to give up our dance party. they were fucking scared, and retreated. then we partied for hours in the streets, until an hour or two later when a bunch of assimilationist gays showed up and co-opted our party to celebrate marriage or whatever. but that's how it always goes i guess; tough radical queers do all the dirty work and are written out of history.

Mr. Know-It-All

That's a nice story, but you left out a few details. What got the police to back off and re-direct the traffic, in addition to the chanting crowd, was calm negotiation with a couple of activists who had already cultivated relationships with them and their liaison through previous work. If, by assimilationist, you mean gays and lesbians who lobbied, donated money, made pone calls, wrote letters and did all the other time-honored grass-roots lobbying that got this passed then, yeah, I guess. The point is, it wasn't your party or any one other exclusionary group's party. It was the LGBTQ community's party. Get over yourself, Mary.

hunter_blatherer

We weren't there to celebrate the vote. We do this every year, and the fates simply decreed perfect timing this time around. It was however a fantastic feeling and we'll be riding high in the saddle (and fabulously) all weekend. And then some.

apollopgh

Wishing we here in Pa could join in the fun, but alas we can't marry in Pa!

Caffiend

I wonder how many anti homosexual (marriage) persons can look at the scene from the village last night and still think it's still right to prevent so many people from attaining their rights of liberty and happiness and the freedoms that being a citizen of the the United States infer.