From Riots To Celebrations New York Is Throwing The Biggest A Pride Festival Ever For As The World Descends Upon The Big Apple For Stonewall 50
by Heather Cassell
There’s no question: New York Pride combined with WorldPride for the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Inn uprising is going to be fabulous and historic.
That’s simply why the Big Apple is gussying itself up with rainbows and getting the entertainment ready to welcome potentially up to 4 million Pridegoers from around the world to descend on the city and its five boroughs in June.
The Stonewall Riots that ignited the gay liberation movement, which is now the LGBT movement, anniversary also marks the first time that World Pride will be hosted in the United States during its 20-year history.
Melissa Etheridge is set to headline the WorldPride’s closing at a free concert in Times Square on June 30.
“All eyes will be on New York and that benefits everybody,” said Cathy Renna, a 53-year-old lesbian native New Yorker who is the media consultant for Heritage of Pride, Inc., which produces NYC Pride.
“It’s going to be the largest Pride event ever in history. Period. End of story. Which is extraordinary in of itself,” said Cathy about the NYC Pride/WorldPride/Stonewall 50 event. “It’s really going to be an extraordinary and historic month.”
“They are doing an amazing job to put on some absolutely spectacular events,” said Marcy Carr, a 54-year-old pansexual woman who is the operations director at the Pride Center of Staten Island, about NYC Pride organizers.
Dykes on Bikes kick off New York’s Pride Parade in the West Village in Manhattan 2016. (Photo: © NYC & Company / http://www.nycgo.com / Walter Wlodarczyk)
Staten Island will kick-off WorldPride events May 10, said Marcy, who is also a board member and regional director for InterPride, which produces WorldPride, with Staten Island PrideFest.
Stacy Lentz, a 48-year-old lesbian who is a co-owner of the Stonewall Inn, agreed.
“The whole city is going to come together to celebrate this once in a generation time period,” said Stacy.
“You have a month and a half of amazing events going on throughout all the boroughs. No matter when you get here you will have plenty of stuff to see and do,” Marcy added.
Everyone is excited to have the world come and celebrate in New York.
“So, I think that it’s going to be amazing,” said Stacy.
“We are looking forward to having friends near and far come and visit hang out and have a good time with us,” said Marcy.
Stonewall
“This is where the fight began,” said Stacy. “The whole entire city offers something special because of what happened here in 1969.”
On June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn, but rather than the usual scramble, catch, and arrest LGBT people fought back. The initial uprising lasted for six days, but 50 years later visitors from around the world come to Stonewall to honor what happened in the bar that fateful night that ignited a movement.
LGBT communities continue to be inspired to stand up for their rights launching Pride celebrations in cities and small towns around the world.
“We are going to be a safe haven and be able to educate different countries and show them how it’s going to be done,” said Stacy, noting that in some countries LGBT people are still being killed for being queer.
Stacy Lentz, left, and Kurt Kelly, right, two of the co-owners of the historic Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York. (Photo: Courtesy of Mike Salinari)
Due to its impact, the Stonewall was designated as the United States’ first-ever LGBT National Historic Landmark in 2016.
“Telling the Stonewall story about what happened in 1969 is a critical element,” said Stacy. “I think that through all these events and through all the events at WorldPride having everything being told here is going to be incredible to keep that story alive and keep reminding people that it’s okay to be gay.”
There will be plenty of events at the Stonewall Inn said Stacy and Kurt Kelly, a 59-year-old bisexual man who is another one of the four co-owners who took over the bar in 2006, reported the Bay Area Reporter.
“Everyone can expect to be accepted and proud because this is their home,” said Kurt.
Stacy agreed, adding, “There will be something for everyone during the entire Pride month. We will be packed to the rafters.”
“The Stonewall Inn has always been that kind of epicenter for us,” said Cathy. “It’s a great opportunity for people to explore their queer history where ever they are from.”
Plenty Of Pride
There will be plenty of pride happening in June in the Big Apple.
All five of New York’s borough Pride organizations – NYC Pride, Brooklyn Twilight Pride, Staten Island PrideFest, 1 Bronx Pride Parade and Festival and Queens Pride are working together to produce an incredible month and a half of events throughout the greater New York area leading up to NYC Pride/WorldPride/Stonewall 50 on June 30.
Additionally, Harlem Pride, YouthPride and an alternative Pride parade, Reclaim Pride Coalition will also be hosting its own celebrations.
Harlem Pride is hosting its own events to commemorate not only Stonewall 50 and WorldPride, but also the 100th anniversary of the Harlem Renaissance and the 10th anniversary of the neighborhood’s own Pride celebration.
Harlem Pride (Photo: Courtesy of Harlem Pride)
“It is important to celebrate Stonewall 50,” wrote Carmen Neely, a self-described same-gender loving woman who is the president of Harlem Pride, in an email interview with the Girls That Roam. “It is also important to celebrate the glorious LGBTQ members of the Harlem Renaissance and the countless others who were advocating for LGBTQ rights long before Stonewall.”
Transgender former United States Army soldier Chelsea Manning and gay playwright and gay veteran HIV/AIDS activist Larry Kramer have joined forces to produce the Queer Liberation March the same day as NYC Pride on June 30.
The grassroots coalition plans to kick-off its march to “address the many social and political battles that continue to be fought locally, nationally, and globally” from the Stonewall Inn, according to the Reclaim Pride Coalition’s, which is planning the effort, website.
New York’s cultural institutions and community organizations are also getting in on the celebration creating a host of events as a coalition, Stonewall 50 Consortium.
Earlier this month, the New York Library opened its series of exhibits and programs, “Love & Resistance: Stonewall 50” in February commemorating Stonewall and the LGBT movement.
WorldPride brings a whole new element to NYC Pride celebrations from opening and closing ceremonies to a Human Rights Conference.
“There are elements of that that will make it extremely unique,” said Cathy who is excited about the Human Rights Conference and the few hundred international contingents that will march in the parade.
“New York is a really amazing place to have it: It’s the home of the United Nations. It’s an international city in so many ways,” she said. “I think that it’s going to really draw some extraordinary people.”
The one-day conference will bring together a wide range of LGBT advocates from activists to journalists to policy makers to discuss LGBT rights around the world on June 24 and 25.
Cathy and Stacy acknowledged that while Pride is a celebration, it’s roots of resistance haven’t dissipated with time.
“There is still very much the sense that gathering and being visible is really still important and it’s still very political,” Cathy said about Pride, noting the state of LGBT rights in the United States and around the world Stonewall 50 is more relevant than ever.
“We are celebrating history, but we are also talking about resistance still, equality still,” said Stacy. “I think that we need to start looking for what’s going to come out of this where are we going as a community on a global level.”
What To Do
To know up-to-the-minute happenings during the celebrations, stop by the pop-up LGBT Visitors Center that will open sometime this spring on Christopher Street near the Stonewall Inn. The center will be open to visitors throughout the summer, said Cathy.
There will be something for everyone from culture vultures to history buffs to Broadway enthusiasts to foodies to festival and party goers during New York’s Pride month.
Best of all, many of the events during Stonewall 50 are free to attend.
Escape Manhattan for a day by sailing across the Upper Bay past the Statue of Liberty aboard the Staten Island Ferry. The adventure will take you to two different historical homes where lesbian legends resided. Alice Austen, a turn of the century lesbian photographer’s family home the Alice Austen House overlooks the bay and New York’s skyline. Black lesbian feminist activists and poet Audre Lorde and her family called Staten Island home for 20 years. It is from this house, that is now the Audre Lorde Residence, where she created her most prolific works and launched the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.
Pioneering female photographer Alice Austen grew up in her family’s home where she later lived with schoolteacher Gertrude Tate, her partner of 53 years. Austen’s work includes early images of women embracing and dressed in male drag, which have since become iconic to the LGBT community. (Photo: Amanda Davis/NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, 2016)
In New York, festivity and party goers will enjoy PrideFest, Pride Island, VIP Rooftop Party and Femme Fatale among other celebrations.
Queer geeks will be able to geek out at the popular Cosplay Pride and foodies will be able to enjoy a special LGBT chef-driven culinary fundraiser Savor Pride.
Head uptown to Harlem to enjoy a series of events hosted by Harlem Pride throughout June.
Some of the Harlem highlights of the month are the history of the “Jewel Box Revue,” Trans*/GNC Appreciation Reception, and the Harlem Pride Celebration Day, which attracts up to 8,000 people annually.
The Jewel Box Revue is one of the earliest traveling drag shows that was gay-owned, unlike its counterparts, Finnochio’s and Club 82 of the 1940s and 1950s in San Francisco and New York, respectively, that were straight-owned. The event is being produced in association with the Apollo Theater’s Live Wire program.
“There are so many places to go and there are so many things to do in New York,” said Cathy. “The fact that it will be amplified to really accentuate the LGBTQ community is going to make it just extraordinary.”
Where To Stay
NYC Pride and WorldPride have partnered with 12 hotels offering 10 to 20 percent discounts.
Cathy also expects Airbnb along with staying with friends and family to be popular options for Pridegoers, she said.
Some of Girls That Roam’s favorite hotels include Aloft Harlem, Hotel Le Bleu in Brooklyn, Kimpton Eventi, The Roxy, and the Hyatt Union Square.
For a unique budget stay in New York, I suggest The Jane.
Where To Eat
Whenever we visit New York, we tend to stay in the Chelsea neighborhood near Union Square and the Village, which offers a bevy of dining options.
This time we enjoyed Momofuku Nishi, Kyma, and be so “Sex in the City” brunching at Fred’s at Barney’s NYC in New York City.
Kyma is a popular Greek restaurant with great cocktails.
Reservations are a must to get into these hot spots, but you might get lucky nabbing a seat at the bar.
Can’t get a reservation at The Blue Box Café at Tiffanies, Fred’s is another New York institution atop Barney’s, the luxury department store it serves a delightful brunch.
The delicious crab cakes during brunch at Fred’s at Barney’s New York. (Photo: Heather Cassell)
Getting Around
It’s easy to get into New York by subway or train from all three of the area’s major airports. Get a Metro Card you’ll be zipping around the city like a local. There is an additional $5 fee for the air train connection between John F. Kennedy and the subway.
Otherwise, car ride share and taxies are plentiful throughout the city and the five boroughs and New Jersey.
Come Visit
“This is really going to be a kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity
experience,” said Cathy, excited about Stonewall 50.
Kurt and Stacy believe that LGBT travelers should visit New York anytime, especially for NYC Pride/WorldPride/Stonewall 50 because of New Yorker’s welcoming attitude and diversity of people, art and culture, history, and things to do.
“I’ve been all over the country and I have not found a place that is so welcoming as New York,” said Kurt.
“It’s that fabric that doesn’t just make up the rainbow flag but the fabric that makes up the international flag,” said Stacy, about what drew her to New York from a small town in Kansas.
In unison, Kurt and Stacy said, “Come to Stonewall and visit us.”
New York City Pride/WorldPride/Stonewall 50 is taking shape, keep an eye on these websites to help make your NYC Pride / Stonewall 50 memorable: https://2019-worldpride-stonewall50.nycpride.org/events and www.nycgo.com/maps-guides/gay/world-pride-nyc-2019.
Book your next New York vacation with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
Originally published by the Bay Area Reporter.
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