June 27, 2023
Verenice Mackey
Sunday’s 2023 NYC Pride March through Greenwich Village continued the annual commemoration of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising which has been called the beginning of the Modern Gay Rights Movement. Before that historic event, police raids on gay bars and revocations of their liquor licenses were regular occurrences. Laws discriminating against LGBTQIA+ Americans were common.
Little by little, over many years, Rights previously denied to LGBTQIA+ Americans have been recognized through legislation and court rulings. But today those Rights are under assault. In state after state, homophobic and anti-gay legislation has been introduced. The ACLU is tracking nearly 500 bills targeting LGBTQIA+ Americans.
On Sunday, the hosts of Triversity Talk set up shop near the AIDS Memorial park across from where Saint Vincent’s Hospital once stood and provided running commentary of the parade as it passed by. One of them, Wendy Stuart, recalled how, at the peak of the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s, it was the place where people went for help and where she lost many dear friends. “Today it’s a condo,” she noted.
“And so, throughout the past we’ve had to march together. We’ve had to challenge the status quo. We’ve had to stand up against injustices of every form, and we’ve won those battles. But for me here today as the Governor of State of New York, that’s not enough because there are people outside our borders, in other states, in the United States of America who do not have the same rights that we do here in New York and that is wrong. We are calling that out, standing together, shoulder to shoulder saying we’re in solidarity with the rest of America. And this year, as if these other state governments have nothing else to do, they’ve introduced over 500 anti-LGBTQ pieces of legislation this year. Why don’t you solve the other problems of society today? This is wrong. It is an injustice, and our friends should not have to be enduring these injustices.”
~ NY Governor Kathy Hochul
