Today is Sunday, June 29, 2025. I originally wrote that I might not post my blog because I was going to attend the Pride Parade on 5th Avenue and 10th Street. Which I did. I decided this morning to help my Astoria friend “Seth” distribute cups of water at the Church of the Ascension on 5th Avenue. I wasn’t sure if Elliot was going with me. I learned this morning that he didn’t want to accompany me because of the impending heat and that he was exhausted after driving upstate and downstate on Friday and Saturday. I notified my friend then that I would meet him at 12:30. So I had a little breakfast out here in Forest Hills and left the area around 11:30.

I met my friend exactly on time : 12:30 at his church on 28th Street and 9th Avenue, the Church of the Holy Apostles. I ambled inside and saw him immediately, so I greeted him, and was permitted to partake myself of some refreshments. I helped myself to an egg salad sandwich and poured myself a cup of cranberry juice. I saw Seth’s husband, “Jerry,” in the crowd, and I went to hug him. I asked how his anniversary was celebrated yesterday and he mentioned that he and Seth went to a local restaurant and had dinner out. Then he left us as we walked to 8th Avenue to take the C train one stop to 14th Street, where we walked down to 10th Street.

We walked into the building to leave our bags on a bench to go out and find our water station. We had to get around a barricade to get to a table where parishioners were filling trays with lemon water. Thus began my two-and-a-half hour stint handing out cups of water to dehydrated parade marchers. Many of those taking water from me were extremely thankful; they literally gushed with appreciation. It really felt good to do something for people on such a sultry day. I believe the temperature got as hot as 91 degrees today. Seth and I put in our volunteer efforts for close to 2 and a half hours; we left around 3:30. I took one break to go inside the church to charge my cell phone and to get out of the sun.

For today’s Pride parade, there was one downside, sadly, which I read about in both the Daily News and, even, the Rupert Murdoch rag, the New York Post, where both newspapers featured articles on the parade organizers, Heritage of Pride, banning the NYPD’s Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) from participating in the event today.

In the Daily News article entitled “March ‘hypocrites’ blasted: Tisch doubles down against Pride ban on gay cops in uniform,” written by Nicholas Williams, the issue is given a balanced examination. In it, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch criticized the Pride March organizer’s decision to prohibit gay police officers from participating in the event today.

In a strongly worded letter to the event’s organizer, Tisch called the group “hypocrites” and demanded the organization change its stance on the officers’ exclusion from the celebratory procession. The commissioner slammed the reason for the group banning gay cops, which was that it violated the event’s “no-weapons policy.” However, as I and Seth both clearly noticed, there were many other police officers at the parade who were wearing their uniforms and carrying weapons as clear as day. So why would the parade organizers request the security and protection of thousands of armed, uniformed police officers for the march today and then not allow gay police officers to walk in strong solidarity with fellow cops? To me, I hate to say this does smack of hypocrisy and I don’t understand it.

By the way, this is the fourth straight year that Heritage of Pride has banned gay officers from marching. According to Heritage of Pride spokesperson Chris Piedmont, the officers are welcome to march without weapons, but this would never be adopted by members of GOAL because NYPD officers are required to have their service weapons on them while they are in uniform “as a matter of public and personal safety,” according to Tisch.

The ban was first announced in 2021, when protests over the killing of Minnesota man George Floyd by police officers generated a wave of anticop sentiment across the country, including in New York. The ban is also rooted in the LGBTQ+ community’s experience with dealing with law enforcement over a span of many years – going back to the 1969 Stonewall riot, which was sparked by a police raid at the now-famous Greenwich Village gay bar. As you know, the ensuing Stonewall protests are considered the birth of the modern gay rights movement.

Detective Brian Downey, GOAL’s president, announced that in response to the ongoing ban, the organization will be protesting today at 11 a.m. at West 20th Street and Fifth Avenue, five blocks away from the starting point of the Pride March. He said, “This isn’t a time for apathy or complacency. It’s a time for visibility! It’s a time for protest!”

As I indicated earlier, I’m on the side of GOAL this time. There’s no reason to ban gay police officers with the specious reason that they can’t carry firearms, while the parade allows regular officers to guard the public carrying their firearms with them. If gay officers are continued to be banned, then the organizers shouldn’t be using New York’s police force at all then. I hope this knotty problem can be resolved by next year’s march then.

Anyway, I came home by 5; Seth didn’t want to stay in Manhattan to have dinner, so we both separated by 4 or so.

So all is not well in Gay World, as evidenced by this controversy. Let’s hope it does get resolved by next year’s procession.

A great, related story comes out of Hungary, that autocratic country dominated by one of Chump’s pals, Viktor Orban, where thousands of people came out to protest the ban on having a Pride March. Massive crowds protested the Hungarian government’s antigay ban. This is marvelous and it correlates with the massive crowd that came out in New York today. As reported in the Post article by Steven Vago and Alex Oliveira, “More than a million people filled Manhattan on Sunday for the largest annual Pride parade in North America.” There is the definitive quote on the number of people who either marched or showed their support for the queer community on the second-to-last day in June. Truly amazing on such a hot day!

Have a great week, everyone.

And so it went!

Excuse my pics here today! They weren’t that hot (no pun intended). This was because I was holding a water tray for a long time and couldn’t use my camera so freely and there were so many people all over the place, that they got into my pics very easily.

I can’t fathom what this float is. I see the letters “Mac” on the side of the vehicle, so maybe it was Mac Factor; oops, that’s “Max Factor.”

Oh, here they are again! I still don’t know what this float represents. Do you?

I liked this marcher’s glittery, silver outfit. And now you see a police officer wearing his firearm there, don’t you?

What’s a Pride Parade without half-naked guys? Oh, they’re not all sporting abs of steel here?

Here is one of those half-naked guys buoyantly receiving a cup of water from one of our volunteers. She’s the one in the green floppy hat.

Nice costumes, eh?

These are representatives of the Imperial Court. “The primary mission of the Imperial Court of New York is to raise funds for LGBT and HIV/AIDS, Equality, and LGBTQ youth-related charities,” according to their Facebook page.