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Showing posts with label marriage equality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marriage equality. Show all posts

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Saturday Afternoon in Harlem: Harlem Pride Day Celebration at Marcus Garvey Park


On this day after same-sex marriage became legal in New York, we spent part of the afternoon enjoying the Harlem Pride Day fair and celebration at Marcus Garvey Park.

The crowds at the various booths of organizations, businesses, and vendors all seemed in a good mood for good reason.



As we're writing this, we just saw Harlem Pride president Carmen Neely on WNBC-TV speaking on behalf of everyone, expressing delight over marriage equality.

SAGE, the organization that has always done such good work for and with older LGBT folks, was an official sponsor of the event and also ran a SAGE Health Fair.

Marcus Garvey Park has some beautiful surroundings.

But of course today was about the people and organizations in the community.








It was a great day in Harlem and all over New York State.


We're grateful we got to go to Harlem Pride this year.

Saturday Morning in Greenwich Village: Breakfast in Christopher Park at Sheridan Square


Just after 7 a.m., about seven hours after the New York state legislature made marriage equality reality and Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the bill into law, we were in Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village having breakfast in Christopher Park and looking across to the Stonewall Inn, where the gay rights movement began almost exactly 42 years ago, when we were 18 years old.

All the TV stations seemed to carry the coverage of the celebrations last night at the Stonewall, and the WCBS/2 and WNBC/Newscenter 4 vans were still outside the bar this morning.

We got our iced tea and oatmeal at the nearby Starbucks and got to the little triangular Christopher Park -- which opened way back in 1837 -- just as workers were opening the gates.

Sitting by the famous statues of the two same-sex couples, if we squinted and made things a little blurry, we could now imagine them as married couples -- or not.

Back in that summer of 1969, we hung out in the Village, though mostly in Washington Square Park (even then couldn't take a decent photo)

and we really couldn't have imagined this day. After three gloomy rainy days, the sun was out in Greenwich Village this morning.

We're grateful to Governor Cuomo, New York's state legislators, and all the groups and individuals who made this happen.