Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to pour onto the streets
of New York June 26 to celebrate one of the city’s largest Gay Pride
marches and honor the 49 people killed in the Orlando nightclub
massacre.
Safeguarded
by hundreds of police, participants from hundreds of groups are
expected to take part in the march down Fifth Avenue from 36th Street
and culminating in Greenwich Village.
The
parade was to begin at noon (1600 GMT) following a moment’s silence to
honor 49 people who were killed and the dozens more who were injured in
the massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12.
New
York considers itself the beacon of gay rights around the world and
Mayor Bill de Blasio had urged Americans across the country to take part
in the march on June 26 alongside city officials after the Orlando
massacre.
This year’s march falls on the first anniversary of the US
Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage across the country and
organizers are hoping to draw a larger crowd than last year.
“I
think it’s very important that people come out to the parade to show
their pride in what we’ve done in this city,” de Blasio said in an
interview with local CBS radio station 1010 WINS.
“Rest
assured, we think this is going to be an extraordinary weekend for New
York City and people should know they’re being protected.”
Two
days before the march, President Barack Obama designated the Stonewall
Inn, a bar in Greenwich Village, and its immediate vicinity the first
LGBT national monument in the United States.
The
Stonewall Inn is considered the birthplace of America’s gay rights
movement as the site of protests in 1969 following a police crackdown of
laws banning the sale of alcohol to gays.
It was also the site of an emotional candle-lit vigil in the wake of the Orlando shooting.
Among
the groups taking part in Sunday’s march is Gays Against Guns, set up
in New York to campaign for gun control legislation in the wake of the
Orlando massacre.
“We
are in mourning and we are outraged over the massacre that happened in
Orlando,” member Tim Murphy told AFP on the eve of the march.
“The
LGBT community… has a long history of organizing and activism for HIV
Aids, for marriage equality and we want to bring some of that leverage
and some of that pressure to bear on the pre-existing gun rights
movement. Because it hits us very close to home this time.”
New
York already has some of the toughest gun laws in the country. It
outlawed the sale of assault weapons after the 2012 killing of 20
children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in neighboring Connecticut.
“How
many more of us — that’s gays, straight, people in general, are going
to be shot down this way?” said fellow member Mari Gustafson.