Pride Parade Revelers Brave High Humidity as Rainbows Brighten Cloudy Skies

Hundreds of thousands of sweat glazed revelers filled the streets and sidewalks from Madison Square to Christopher Street Sunday for Manhattan’s annual Pride Parade.

The weather, although very humid, was largely cooperative, with temperatures in the low 80s and rainstorms holding off until later afternoon.

Despite their being numerous other pride events during the month—including separate parades in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Harlem—as Redd Foxx would famously exclaim on Sanford & Son when feigning a heart attack, “This is the big one!”

Among this year’s grand marshals were DaShawn Usher, Miss Major, Raquel Willis, Michelle Visage, Eshe Ukwell, and Baddie Brooks.The theme of this year’s event was “Reflect, Empower, Unite.”

Politicians generally love the Pride Parade and their affections were vividly expressed by Governor Kathy Hochul, cheekily wearing an MTA Pride heart shirt on the exact day congestion pricing was to begin; Mayor Eric Adams ecstatic in a rainbow adorned ball cap; Senator Charles Schumer, with a rainbow flag tucked into a belt loop and a bullhorn-carrying aide beside him while he himself spoke into an attached microphone; Council Members Gale Brewer and Erik Bottcher; and others.

With the line of march beginning on 5th Avenue next to Madison Square Park, sweaty parade beat reporters were struck by who wasn’t present: specifically, the NYPD Mounted unit and the NYPD Marching Band, both early highlights of most Manhattan parades.

Their absence was not a choice of the NYPD. Rather, the event’s organizers, Heritage of Pride, banned uniformed members of the NYPD from the event in 2021. The reasons for the exclusion of LGBTQ+ cops in the march until at least 2025 are, at best, questionable, but reflect one of many schisms that lurk beneath the all-embracing expressions of “Pride.”

In the cops’ case, the argument goes, the police role in the oppression of gays, including the famous Stonewall Riots of 1969, now made them unsuitable Pride partners.

This decision to ban the NYPD was made despite the police having been welcome participants and the long, inspiring history of gay rights activism within the NYPD— a struggle so notable it was the subject of an episode of the great NYPD tv cop series, Barney Miller that originally was broadcast in October 1975. No spoilers but one of the guest characters in the episode entitled “Discovery” is a gay NYPD detective—and an ex-Marine.

While there was still a way to go, the Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) to support LGBTQ police officers was founded by NYPD Sgt. Charles Cochrane Jr., in 1982. The organization exists to this day, with over 2000 members nationwide. In 1986, New York City passed its Gay Rights Bill barring discrimination in housing, employment—including the NYPD—and public accommodations.

Said Detective Sophia Mason, an NYPD spokesperson when police learned in May 2021 that they were no longer welcome at Pride, ”the idea of officers being excluded is disheartening and runs counter to our shared values of inclusion and tolerance. That said, we’ll still be there to ensure traffic safety and good order during this huge, complex event.”

The same held true for 2024, where thousands of uniformed cops from many units kept the streets safe and under control.

Meanwhile, the Pride March had another, related problem, namely the dissident Queer Liberation March (QLM). First held in 2019, this splinter event was founded by activists who believed the Pride March had become too corporate—and too cozy with police.

This year’s QLM event took place the same morning as the Pride March, traversing a route from Sheridan Square to Battery Park. Its theme was “The Queer Liberation March for Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, Gender Nonconforming, and Nonbinary Youth & Against War and Genocide.”

A further explanatory statement on Instagram—which included the hashtags #ReclaimPride, #BlackLivesMatter and #AbolishThePolice—expressed solidarity for the people of Congo, Sudan, and Gaza. Photos of the event show that, among its mostly young participants, Palestinian flags and COVID masks were common.

Back up at Madison Square, the line of march included the Sirens Motorcycle Club; a small, non-uniformed group of Gay Officers Action League members; New York City’s Queer Big Apple Corps Marching Band (originally—their banner reminds us—Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps); and the Gotham Club, including pom-pom waving cheerleaders in rainbow tutus.

A coalition of Jewish groups including United Jewish Appeal, Congregation Beit Simchat Torah and others, featured people carrying both Israeli and Palestinian flags and signs like “I heart Nice Jewish Queers.” It will be noted that while celebratory Israeli flags exist in innumerable LGBTQ+ variations, the flag of Palestine does not.

Perhaps the most surprising parade appearance was that of WorldPride, of Washington D.C., whose contingent including two larger-than-life mascots of the Washington Nationals baseball team, Teddy, based on New York City-native Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln, an Illinoisan, who became president largely on the strength of his brilliant—and today underknown— February 1860 Cooper Union Address.

More notables: the shirtless and largely Speedo clad gentlemen of the Team New York Aqua Swim Team; the NYC Human Rights Commission; the rainbow fist flag flyers of SageUsa.Org, a group for LGBTQ+ Elders; the SUNY Pride Marching Band; and the Consul General of Mexico.

When the “Free Palestine” float rolled up, it was on six-wheel cargo truck with a banner reading “Queer, Middle Eastern, North African & Fabulous” in both English and Arabic.

The dual-pronged message (LGBTQ+ rights are very limited in most Arabic nations) unwittingly foretold the event’s ironic apogee, a disruptive pro-Palestinian protest at Christopher Street and Waverly Place. After breaking through the crowd barriers, the protestors—some in COVID masks, many wearing “Queer As In Free Palestine” shirts—hurled fake blood at the Human Rights Watch truck and then sat down, blocking the line of march.

When it was determined the protestors had to be removed for the Pride march to joyously continue, NYPD was called upon to remove them. Ten people were taken into custody, and seven were issued criminal summons.