Tag Archives: Stonewall Veteran Association

WORLD PRIDE NYC STONEWALL 50/Heritage of Pride Announces Grand Marshals, Snubs Surviving Riot Participants

Featured, Gay History, Gay News Domestic & U.S. Politics, Idiots, , , , , ,

This week, Heritage of Pride, the group that produces New York City’s annual Pride Parade and this year’s World Pride NYC Stonewall 50th Anniversary, announced its Grand Marshals.

Missing, though, are any of the surviving participants, known as the Stonewall Veterans, those who were there at the Stonewall Inn and stood up for our rights and rioted on that fateful night in June of 1969.

The Grand Marshals for this year’s historic Pride parade include the cast of Pose, as well as Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, co-founder of UK Black Pride, and Monica Helms, creator of the transgender pride flag.  The Trevor Project and the Gay Liberation Front, billed by NYC Pride as the first post-Stonewall LGBTQ+ activist organization, will also lead as grand marshals.

“We’re really thrilled with the group of grand marshals we have this year,” said James Fallarino, a spokesperson for HOP, which has produced New York City’s Pride events since 1984. “The goal is for them to reflect what World Pride 2019 and Stonewall 50 are all about.”

Obviously, it seems that to HOP, Stonewall 50 means not including or honoring any of the last few surviving participants who actually took part in the riot at the Stonewall Inn, or those who participated in the days and nights of rioting that followed. Also missing, except for the very general inclusion of the Gay Liberation Front–many of whom will not be participating this year because of HOP’s corporate ties–are any lesbian and gay Pride Marshals.

I ask you: how much more disrespectful and insensitive could Heritage of Pride be to our history and to the memory of those who fought for us not only in the riots but also over the past 50 years?

This is just one more reason on an ever-growing list why I do not support and will not attend Pride celebrations in NYC this year.

If Heritage Of Pride believes that the cast members of Pose are more worthy to be PRIDE Marshals than the people who actually fought for our liberation on June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn, then our cause is all but lost.

Stonewall Veterans Association Accuse Cynthia Nixon for 'Ripping off gay history' For Campaign Purposes

Stonewall Veterans Association Accuse Cynthia Nixon of ‘Ripping off gay history’ For Campaign Purposes

#RealTalk, Featured, Gay History, , , , ,

The Stonewall Veterans Association, which was formed in the aftermath of the Stonewall riots in 1969 by those who fought and were involved in the 4 nights of rioting are insulted that Cynthia Nixon launched her gubernatorial campaign with a fund-raiser at the Stonewall Inn on Wednesday without any recognition of the history or the group that many say started the fight for our civil rights.

Williamson L. Henderson, the Stonewall Veterans Association director has said that Nixon “Is ripping off gay history to promote herself.”

The group which boasts roughly about 40 surviving members of that historic night has been subbed by Nixon before.  At a  2013 campaign event at the Stonewall she stumped for Mayor de Blasio with a dozen Stonewall vets in the front row.

“It’ll be five years in June, they (Nixon and her companions) were on a little stage that was about 2-feet high for show … they never even acknowledged us,” he said. “She was talking about gay rights, gay pride, and there were a dozen of us there. Fast forward to the other night — she doesn’t invite the Stonewall Veterans?”

Nixon, who was 3 years old at the time, also prides herself as an advocate for LGBT rights and spoke about the challenges LGBT people face under the Trump administration at the fundraiser. “Being queer and being visible has been one of the unexpected joys of my life. And I must say, as a community, we’re at a thorny moment in our LGBTQ journey,” she said. We may have repealed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and passed marriage equality, but, the sun is not shining equally on all of us. Queer people who are also African-American or Muslim or Latino or working class are being targeted brutally on a daily basis.”

Williamson and the SV’s were further enraged after watching the coverage of Nixon’s event where it was reported supporters who contributed as little as $1 could attend.

Ironically $1 was the same cost of admission to the Stonewall inn in 1969. 

Oh, Miranda.