Orlando Massacre Unites NY Pride Parade
NEW YORK – Those thousands of people participating in New York City’s pride parade showed strong support for the victims of the Orlando terrorist attack. The executive director of Orlando’s LGBT Center says the support he’s feeling in New York City’s pride parade is “a little overwhelming.” Terry DeCarlo was among the thousands marching down Fifth Avenue on Sunday in the annual parade.
He said he wishes the 49 people who died in the Orlando gay nightclub shooting earlier this month were marching today with everyone. But, he said, “just feeling the love from New York means a lot to us.” The parade started off with a moment of silence for the victims of the massacre at Pulse.
Also part of the parade was Pulse owner Barbara Poma, who rode atop a Stonewall Inn float wearing a rainbow print dress and bow tie, leading the parade. Meanwhile, just before the start of the parade, Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the Stonewall Inn would be designated as a state historic site.
He also said New York would erect a monument in honor of all victims of hate and intolerance, including those killed in Orlando.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee was accompanied by fellow Democrats Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Reverend Al Sharpton as she walked along a part of the parade route.
Thousands stood behind barricades as the parade made its way down Fifth Avenue and into Greenwich Village.
The parade had started earlier Sunday with a moment of silence for the victims of the massacre at Pulse, an Orlando gay nightclub, earlier this month. Police lined the route down Fifth Avenue, which started in Midtown and culminates in Greenwich Village, home of the Stonewall Inn which President Barack Obama two days ago designated America’s first LGBT national monument.
The Inn is considered the birthplace of America’s gay rights movement as the site of protests in 1969 following a police crackdown of laws banning the sale of alcohol to gays.
Among the groups taking part in Sunday’s march was Gays Against Guns, a new organization set up in New York to campaign for gun control legislation in the wake of the Orlando massacre.
Tim Murphy, a member of the organization, said the LGBT community has a long history of activism for issues such as HIV and marriage equality.
