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Big Apple Manages A Sunny Day For Gay Pride March
By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 29, 2009
Modified Jun 29, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Jun 29, 2009
Modified Jun 29, 2009
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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."
Someone who also hoped that the State Legislature would have passed gay marriage by now is one of the March's grand marshals, Governor Paterson, who proposed gay marriage legislation in April. While the Assembly approved the bill, the warring State Senate was divided on the issue even before the coup. The NY Times reports that Paterson said today, "In my dream, I was grand marshal of a parade where as I’m taking steps down Fifth Avenue, many New Yorkers can take steps down the aisles to be married, which I think is their right...I think that the bill should be considered...I have tried not to insert into an already acrimonious situation any controversial legislation that might exacerbate the tension and cause the bill to lose." And another parade-goer told the NY Post, "We can blame our state Senate. They could have made the vote by now. That would have made this a wedding march. They're not doing any work right now. They're just passing the gavel back and forth. That makes me mad."
This week's gay pride festivities also marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. Some veterans of the riots recalled 1969 to the Daily News; one said, "The parallel is gay people are still fighting to be seen as full human beings and want someone to have and to hold. And the first place we were able to have and to hold is when we danced at Stonewall."
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gay pride
gay pride march
gay pride parade
governor paterson
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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