New York Pride March 2013

Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and their allies marched earlier today from midtown Manhattan on Fifth Avenue to Greenwich Village for this year's Heritage of Pride Parade. This year's march was a particularly festive occasion, due to the recent Supreme Court Ruling that it was unconstitutional to ban gay marriage. One of the grand marshals was Edith Windsor, who only days before won the Supreme Court case to grant same-sex couples federal marriage benefits. Joining her were musician and activist Harry Belafonte and Earl Fowlkes, head of the Center for Black Equity.

Heritage of PRIDE NYC March 2010

Last Sunday, the annual Heritage of Pride NYC March was held last Sunday, June 27. The march began as an annual civil rights demonstration beginning the year after the Stonewall riots in 1970. Heritage of Pride is wholly volunteer-managed non-partisan, tax-exempt, not-for-profit corporation that organizes Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride events in New York City to commemorate and celebrate the Stonewall riots. These Events are organized for and on behalf of all lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and groups, and all others who support the struggle for the liberation of these communities.

The Stonewall Inn - where PRIDE began

This is the newly renovated STONEWALL INN, the historic landmark of gay liberation on 53 Christopher Street in Greenwich Village. The photo was taken last Sunday. It is the birthplace of the Sonewall Riots during the last weekend of June of 1969. The Pride Parade last June 28 marked the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

From http://www.stonewall-place.com:

The police and Alcoholic Beverage Control Board agents entered The Stonewall Inn allegedly to look for violations of the alcohol control laws. They made the usual homophobic comments and then, after checking identification, threw the patrons out of the bar, one by one. Instead of quietly slipping away into the night, as we had done for years, hustlers, drag queens, students and other patrons held their ground and fought back. Someone uprooted a parking meter and used it to barricade the door. The agents and police were trapped inside, They wrecked the place and called in reinforcements. Their vehicles raced to the scene with lights glaring and sirens blaring. The crowd grew. Someone set a fire. More people came. For three days, people protested. And for the first time, after innumerable years of oppression, the chant, Gay Power, rang out.

The symbol of gay pride is the Rainbow Flag, created by GILBERT BAKER, a friend of the late HARVEY MILK. in 1978. The flag debuted at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. It has since been used around the world as a symbol of LGBT unity in many variations, including adaptations such as bumper stickers and decals. The Rainbow Flag is recognized by the International Congress of Flag Makers. The Rainbow (Pride) Flag lives in the public domain. The original flag had eight stripes from top to bottom: pink (sexuality), red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sunlight), green (nature), turquoise (magic), indigo/blue (serenity), and violet (spirit). Within a year, the flag had shed two of its stripes—pink and violet. According to Gilbert, they "ran out of pink dye." The violet stripe was later taken out to create an even number of stripes on the flag.

HERITAGE OF PRIDE PARADE

“United for Equality” is the theme of this year’s HERITAGE OF PRIDE PARADE. It’s the 38th year of the annual Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender celebration. The parade began at noon today on Fifth Avenue at 52nd Street and proceeded south to 8th Street where it continued west. At Sixth Avenue, the parade veered northwest on Greenwich Avenue for one block then headed southwest through the Village on Christopher Street. The celebration commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Riots, considered the birth of the Gay Rights movement in America. At 2 p.m., there was a moment of silence to recognize those who have died of AIDS.

The rainbow flag, a symbol of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender pride was ubiquitous at the parade. The flag was designed by artist Gilbert Baker, and was first flown in San Francisco. The original design had 8 colors, but as of 2006, it consists of six coloured stripes of red (life), orange (healing), yellow (sun), green (nature), blue (harmony), and violet (spirit). It is most commonly flown with the red stripe on top, as the colours appear in a natural rainbow.

On June 28, 1969 in New York's Greenwich Village, the police raided a gay bar called the Stonewall Inn, which initiated a series of violent conflicts between the New York City police officers and groups of gay and transgender people. Also called the Stonewall Rebellion or simply Stonewall, the clash marked the beginning of worldwide gay rights movement.