Lieutenant Dan Choi, the openly gay West Point graduate who has become the "poster soldier" for the movement to include gays in the military, will be one of the Grand Marshals at the Gay Pride March on Sunday. Choi, an Arabic translator who spent 15 months in Iraq before coming out in a nationally televised interview, tells NY1, "How disgusting to think that 60 years from now they're going to look back on this time in 2010 and say you weren't able to serve in your country's military because you are an American who happens to be gay? We're going to be so ashamed."
Dan Choi Reports For Gay Pride March Grand Marshal Duty
Big Apple Manages A Sunny Day For Gay Pride March
It was a beautiful day for a parade, and participants and spectators of the Gay Pride March made the most of it. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets to see the colorful procession of marchers, floats, musicians, and performers. One spectator told NY1, "I'm hoping that in my time, I get to see them legalize gay marriage."
NYPD Enforces Fire-Escape Safety During Gay Pride March
Thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of people gathered for today's Gay Pride March, and it seems that the NYPD is serious about revelers on Christopher Street not watching the parade from fire escapes. While the Sixth Precinct's letter to Christopher Street residents simply "recommended" that fire escapes not be used for march viewing due to concerns about the escapes' structural integrity and for the public, we hear that cops are taking their suggestion seriously—a tipster says, "They just made a party of folks leave their fire escape (I think at 100 Christopher)."
Gay Pride Parade Loves Governor Paterson
Even a downpour couldn't stop the Gay Pride March down Fifth Avenue yesterday, which attracted half a million participants and an estimated million spectators. Besides the costumed performers, motorcyclists, bands and floats, elected officials were part of the parade. Along with Mayor Bloomberg and Senator Schumer, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Governor David Paterson marched and spoke out on behalf of gay rights.
Enjoy the Gay Pride Parade, But Be Alert, Too
Gay Pride Week is coming to a close with today's Gay Pride March along Fifth Avenue and a number of other events. But while you celebrate, please remain vigilant also, because a reader tells us he was attacked on the 2/3 from Christopher Street late yesterday afternoon, after volunteering at a pride event:
"The guy kept asking us to move because he didn't like us and that we made him sick. There was no place else for us to go. He started hitting me and then his girlfriend started clawing me with her nails...I took a cab to St. Vincents, filed a police report and got two black eyes, 7 stitches, multiple chipped teeth, broken glasses."He suggests people be careful, perhaps travel in groups on the subway, because he doesn't think the police caught his attackers yet.

