Amid all the Pride celebrations and jubilation over New York’s legalizing marriage equality, you may have missed the horribly awful news about all the ruined Pride events everywhere else. So allow us to piss on your parade for just a bit.
First, the NYPD and New York State Liquor Authority raided The Eagle gay bar moments after Governor Cuomo signed marriage equality into law. According to reports, the police didn’t arrest anybody, but they did shine flashlights in peoples’ faces, asked customers to empty their pockets, and had bar patrons line up outside the bar. The police cited the bar for six violations including one for unnecessary noise.
Second, some hater slashed dozens of tires on floats meant for Chicago’s Pride parade. The Parade organizers replaced some of the tires and started the parade on time by moving some of the damaged floats to the end of the line, but they couldn’t repair all the floats—and we bet the ones they left out were the most awesome. Police may investigate it as a hate crime.
Third, in Alaska a 70-year-old woman driving the grand marshal of Anchorage Pride accidentally ran over and killed a 50-year-old parade marcher before the parade even started—effectively canceling the parade.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Then lastly, Russian police arrested 14 Pride marchers in St. Petersburg after a scuffle with homophobic thugs. City Hall had banned the march and all 14 arrestees have since been released after about 24 hours in jail.
Now you may go back to nursing your Pride-induced hangover.
Erich
Ybarra v. Illinois – It’s illegal for police to search patrons of a bar when the bar and/or it’s owner is suspected of illegal activity. If they suspected drug activity, it’s still illegal to search everyone. They are only allowed to search the individuals they suspect of being involved in drugs.
This happened in NYC, I’m not an attorney, but there wasn’t one person there who didn’t know their rights?
Red Meat
@Erich: I read that there is a law in NY that allows them to do that. Not sure if that is true.
The crustybastard
@Red Meat: New York cannot have a valid law that abrogates a SCOTUS decision.
Steve
Don’t apologize. While I approve of celebrations, especially among those who live in states that allow marriage equality, these kinds of stories I think keep those who support us grounded and realize that while their fight may be over, others still need their help.
Ian Awesome
Don’t forget the shooting in SF. Yikes!
dollyknockers
It just goes to show that we must stay awake. We have come so far over the last forty years but we must not sit back and think, “yep! We’ve done it!”
There are still places around the worlds where being gay can lead to life imprisonment or even the death sentence.
It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the celebration of Pride that we can forget what it was like before we came out. All those fears that we would be cut off from family and friends who wouldn’t accept our new identity. That we would find it difficult to gain employment as straight applicants would be chosen over us. Hiding our true self in fear that our children would be taken from us. Having to lie about our relationships for fear that landlords would evict us. Looking over our shoulder when going out at night, worried that we were going to become the next statistic of gay hate crime. Putting pressure on ourselves to achieve so much more than what is required just to give us the chance of getting that job that our straight colleagues are also applying for.
We are all supporting our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters who are just starting on their life out of the closet by telling them, “It Gets Better!” But we must not forget that there are a minority of people who, for whatever reason, want to take things away from us.
So enjoy the Pride celebrations but don’t lose sight of how we got here and how far we still need to go.
Happy Pride!