I was off work today, and I went with Regan to see the first NYC Pride after the passage of marriage equality in New York state - just 36 hours after it, in fact. I couldn’t help myself, took my digital recorder and a notepad just in case, and ended up writing a story about it. Day off or not, how many times in a journalist’s life do you get to be at the center of a great civil rights story on a gloriously sunny day in the middle of New York City? The story is in Italian; my apologies to those who don’t read it. I’m pretty sure it can be condensed down to the quote that someone standing next to us gave me. His name is Danny Carragher; he was there with his husband and two gorgeous kids. They had rainbow flags, plus an American flag on the stroller. They were handsome and smiling. Danny told me, “This is awesome. I’ve been coming to Pride since maybe 1997 and I remember going to a meeting about marriage equality. Wasn’t called marriage equality then, and even in the gay community it was considered so far-fetched. So it’s amazing. And it’s great that it happened with a Republican-led Senate.” 

I had noticed him because he was waving a sign that said “Love Will Win”, obviously a relic of previous Prides. Except that for this one he had made a correction, with a pen: he had changed the verb. And now the sign he was waving over the head of his beautiful son said, “Love Won”.  

Reverse side

Bikers opening the parade, and that’s an okay shot…

… but sometimes the stuff you really want to shoot is behind you:

Something tells me that if John-John Kennedy were alive today and his George magazine were still in business, he’d put THIS on the cover of the August 2011 issue:   

I was a little surprised that I had to wait a couple hours into it to see a Lady Gaga reference, but here it is:  

Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Cuomo, who got a huge applause, stretching the capabilities of the inadequate lens I’d brought:

Urban bikini. Always nice. There were topless girls, too - it’s legal in New York. Where are the photos? Not here. This is a family-friendly Tumblr.   

If he had been holding the Thank You Cuomo sign towards me, this would have been a pretty good shot. Still…  

NYPD:

And yes, everybody was smiling, all through the day. Everybody.