Gatherings of large groups of people are still barred in New York City as part of an effort to control the spread of the coronavirus. “The feeling doesn’t go away because of the coronavirus,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in an interview with WABC-TV. In the West Village, a rainbow light art installation next to the Stonewall Inn was expected to illuminate the sky in tribute to the uprising and the original march, as well as those who have marched and fought through the years.
At Rockefeller Center, more than 100 rainbow flags were placed around the center rink, and the plaza was lit up in rainbow colors. Other celebrations of the day were visual. “It’s just this nothing place,” he said, “but it meant everything.” Instead, he felt this scaled-down version better resembled the first Pride than the massive event the parade became.Įngargeau, wearing a rainbow mask, said he’s watched tourists through the years come to snap photos of the Stonewall, only to realize it doesn’t look like anything special. Joseph Engargeau feared there might be no event this year because of the coronavirus restrictions. The group wrote on Twitter that police had become aggressive later in the afternoon, saying it ended its live streaming of the march early because police were using pepper spray and making arrests. The organizers are activists who held a protest march last year as an alternative to the main Pride parade, saying it had become too corporate. The Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality, meanwhile, marched from Lower Manhattan toward Washington Square Park. The show featured several performers including Janelle Monáe, Deborah Cox and Billy Porter, and appearances from a number of other celebrities.
Organizers of this year’s event in New York City were determined to showcase some of that spirit, with a TV broadcast honoring the front line workers who have been so necessary in the fight against the virus as well as people and institutions of the LGBTQ community. “It would be devastating to think about walking down Christopher Street and seeing that building shuttered.” “I don’t think things will really be back to normal for us until there’s a vaccine, so this is a much-needed lifeline,” co-owner Stacy Lentz told The Associated Press.
But it announced Sunday it will receive a $250,000 contribution from the Gill Foundation - money that will go toward several months of rent and utilities. The historic Stonewall Inn, known as the birthplace of the gay rights movement, furloughed its employees and has been shuttered more than three months amid the pandemic. Marchers trooped to Central Park, chanting “Gay power!” and “Gay and proud!”Ĭities around the world in subsequent years followed New York’s lead, hosting commemorative events. Initially called the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, it looked much like the protests that have streamed through the streets of New York City daily in recent weeks over racial injustice. The first Pride march, on June 28, 1970, was a marker of the Stonewall uprisings of the year before in New York City’s West Village that helped propel a global LGBTQ movement.
One man held a sign advertising free hugs. Most wore masks, though some scrapped social distancing in favor of hugging friends. “So we’re really going back to the roots of that and making sure we encompass everything that empowers people to be who they are.”įischer said it was important this year to show cooperation between the Black and LGBTQ communities, given the recent deaths of George Floyd and others that have sparked demonstrations against police brutality.Ī number of people in the crowd at Foley Square held signs reading “All Black Lives Matter,” with a black fist surrounded by rainbow colors. “It’s a great thing to see because the original Pride started with the civil rights movement,” Matthew Fischer said as he passed out hand sanitizer Sunday at Foley Square. The disruption caused by the virus would be an aggravation in any year, but particularly in this one, the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march in New York City. With the city’s massive Pride parade canceled, Sunday's performances were virtual, the flags flew in emptier than normal spaces and the protesters were masked.