June 26 was Pride Day in New York City. People attending the traditional New York City Pride March, down Fifth Avenue from 25th Street, with a theme of “Unapologetically Us,” were the subjects of photographer Paul Kimball’s photos for New York Q News, and participants in the alternative Queer Liberation March/Reclaim Pride, from Foley Square to Washington Square, were the subjects of photographer Mike De Santo’s photos.
I was part of every Pride March from the second Christopher Street Liberation Day March in 1971, which marched uptown along half of Sixth Avenue to Central March, to the Heritage of Pride March 2019, down Fifth Avenue to the Village and past the Stonewall, for a total of 49 years of marches. Serious illness kept me from this year’s march, but I hope to return in the future.
I was a marshal in my first two marches, when our main function was separating the cars, with which we shared Sixth Avenue, from the marchers. I was at the rally in Washington Square Park in 1973, when Jean O’Leary, a founder of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, spoke out again drag performers Billy and Tiffany, saying, ‘We don’t want to be impersonated,” and Bette Midler calmed the crowd by singing “Friends,” and when some objected to Grace Jones singing “I Need a Man.”
We didn’t have Fifth Avenue until 1977, when Anita Bryant and her notorious Save the Children—from us—campaign got gay and lesbian rights repealed in Dade County, and we successfully took Fifth Avenue without a permit. Over the years, I marched with Gay Activists Alliance, the veteran activists, Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the Bears and the Leather folk. My last few Prides, before the Covid pandemic, I rode the route on the Eagle NYC truck. It wasn’t marching, but I was there. From the mid-1970s until three years ago, my Pride Day began by sharing Pride Breakfast with Paul and his spouse Barry, mostly at their home. I shared part of my most recent Prides with Bruce Michael Weitzmon, my 18th successor as Mr. Fire Island Leather, and his boy Mike.
More or less homebound this year, I watched ABC-TV’s coverage of the first three hours of the march, and now Paul and Mike’s pictures have shown me more of what the day was like. They’ve shared their photos with New York Q News and we present them here.

Photo credits:
photos by Paul Kimball & Mike De Santo