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Along with the participants,
there must have been at least a million New Yorkers and tourists watching
the parade. With a large gathering of people like that, there were inevitably
about 10 cops on each block. Also, the media was definitely involved
in the parade: photographers and cameramen were attempting to capture
the most outrageous costumes.
Photo's contributed by: NYU Urban Journalism Workshop |
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If
you’ve never been to the Gay Pride parade, it is one of the most
outrageous, colorful, and uncensored annual public marches. The parade
started on 52nd street, went downtown by 5th avenue, through the Greenwich
Village to the Washington Square park where it turned west and ended
on Sheritan Square. This year, the parade lasted over 3 hours. It was
composed of over 20 commercial floats with half naked guys and girls
dancing, advertising companies beginning from Bacardi to Gay College
Parties, other floats and marches representing 12 religious and 5 neighborhood
groups, 15 associations, and 3 labor unions. There were about 6 marching
bands and 3 gay choirs. There were also celebrities and politicians:
Hillary Clinton, Amber, and casts of Queer as Folk and Rocky Horror
Picture Show. It also included over 500 people marching, some dressed
up in drag, S&M outfits, topless or butt naked. There were people
wearing wings bigger than themselves, a couple were skating dressed
in fairy costumes, a whole band of people in ethnic clothes, people
dressed in feathers, colorful wigs, American and Rainbow flags, cowboy
and farmer outfits. Two guys were dressed as Cher and Liza Minelli.
Although
seemingly a good turnout, not everyone was happy with the parade. Eric
Chin, 17, said “It was too commercial and was not portraying the
same message as it was intended to when the Gay Pride parade started”,
while Jane Lee, 17 said “With so many people dressed up in drag,
or S&M with whips and dancing half naked, it portrays a message
that all gay people are like that”. Daniela Costarelo, 17 refuted
that statement in saying, “Yeah, but if they didn’t have all
the outrageous stuff, the parade would be boring and no media would
even pay any attention to it.” And Jonathan Chow, 16, thought the
parade was too long. “It was endless!” he said. “There
were people protesting about Palestine and there were too many religious
groups. They didn’t fit in with the parade at all. They really
let everyone march. But I liked everything else about it.”
Even
though some people thought the parade portrayed a bad message, there
were political movements fighting for freedom and equal rights for gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transsexual communities. There were same-sex couples
riding in bicycle-drawn carriages that had “Just Married”
signs, and same-sex couples marching with babies that they’ve adopted.
People carried signs and distributed handouts and stickers that displayed
messages such as “Equal Rights: No More, No Less” and “I
DO: support same-sex marriage.” Thus, aside of the outrageous costumes,
the parade still is staying true to its original message: celebration
of sexual orientation and a fight for equal rights. Longer
and bigger than ever in history, this year the Gay Pride Parade was
a good show.