I returned from yesterday's Gay Pride parade all sunburnt, exhausted, and happy. And not necessarily in that order.
Hundreds of thousands of people--some of them even marching down 5th Avenue--came out to celebrate Pride on a truly gorgeous New York afternoon.
That's why when checking the media today to see how it was reported, I'm not so much surprised as enraged at our hometown "paper of record."
More on the flipside (heh).
I'll get to the Times in a second, but first a brief report of my own:
It always amazes me that our community is made up of all the diversity that the world can provide. From at-risk LGBT ("Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender") youth to LGBT Judges and politicians (I love my senators!). From LGBT Episcopal Bishops (Go Gene Robinson!), to the Times Squares, the local LGBT two-step group. From the Princeton LGBT students, to S&M activists, to Gay Sailing, LGBT Orthodox Jews, Gay Rugby Players (so hot), Gay Soccer teams, LGBT salsa dancers, LGBT accountants, and a special float from the City of Montreal ("Montreal loves New York!) It went on and on ... and on for many hours and literally hundreds of thousands of marchers in various colorful states of (un)dress.
The first press report I could find was in the LGBT press. It's actually pretty right on and from 365 Gay.com:
About a half million people lined Fifth Avenue in New York to see the parade in the city where modern gay liberation was born.
On June 27, 1969, eight officers from the public morals section of the first division New York City Police Department pulled up in front of the Stonewall Inn, one of the city's largest and most popular gay bars. Inside, dozens of gays were mourning the death of Judy Garland who was buried the day before.
At the time, the vice squad routinely raided gay bars. Patrons always complied with the police, frightened by the prospect of being identified in the newspaper. But this particular night was different.
A scuffle broke out between a drag queen and a police officer. It turned into a bar brawl and as the cops called for reinforcements gays began gathering outside. The fight escalated into a riot that went on for several days. It was the first reported time gays saw themselves as a community.
Sunday some of the original police officers - now retired - who fought in the Stonewall riots marched in the parade alongside aging activists who battled them.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and U.S. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton were among the politicians marching.
Bloomberg encountered loud boos at various points on the parade route for appealing a court ruling that declared a state ban on gay marriage violated the New York Constitution.
So far, so good. A good basic report, mixed with a little background, telling us in abbreviated fashion about the birth of the modern LGBT movement.
Note the "loud boos." I heard them. I am not delusional.
Next up is our hometown paper of record. Not content to merely report the facts of the parade, what it is, what's happening this year, the New York Times dives headfirst into election year politics by revising history as it happens.
As New York City's master of ceremonies, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg routinely makes the obligatory declaration of solidarity with whatever group is sponsoring a parade - he was an honorary Puerto Rican, for example, on National Puerto Rican Day.
But the spirit of the day seemed to elude the mayor at the start of the annual gay pride parade down Fifth Avenue yesterday, and he demurred when asked by a reporter if he would declare himself "gay for a day."
"Let me get back to you on that," Mr. Bloomberg said with a grin, adding that he would have his press secretary prepare "a very clever but ducking answer."
The moment, while lighthearted, seemed to capture the complexity of Mr. Bloomberg's rocky relationship with gay rights advocates. Like his restrained presence at the parade, the mayor's policies toward same-sex marriage and benefits for domestic partners often seem to express a tempered enthusiasm: He supports both, but with reservations that prevent him from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples or requiring that companies doing business with the city extend benefits to partners of gay employees.
This being an election year, those policies have become increasingly entwined in mayoral politics, which was on full display at yesterday's march, since all four Democratic candidates were also there.
Let's see.
Paragraph 1: Bloomberg doesn't want to be master of ceremonies, it's "obligatory."
Paragraph 2: He's just not into the gays--not into the "spirit."
Paragraph 3: Talk to the hand.
Paragraph 4: He wants to support gay rights theoretically yet Bloomberg is the main impediment to actual gay rights.
Paragraph 5: There are four other people who would like to be mayor, but we're running out of ink.
To be fair, further down the article announces the Empire State Pride Agenda's endorsement of Giff Miller who has been very, very good on our issues and a mention of Freddy Ferrer, who indisputably has also been very good on our issues, but has alienated just about everyone.
Feh.
Better reporting was done, as usual, by Newsday.
He was overwhelmingly well-received along the route except for a handful of dissenters, including a man who heckled him from the sidewalk.
"Bloomberg is a hypocrite on gay rights," he shouted. "You can't have it both ways." The mayor pretended not to hear it. Before the parade, Bloomberg was asked if he would ever perform a gay marriage at City Hall. He reiterated earlier comments that he won't do it since such marriages will not be backed by the courts.
Ummm, yeah. That's about right.
So I ask, is the New York Times now utterly incapable of reporting, or is this merely a sign that it's going to be a full-time campaign worker for a Bloomberg second term?
I'll take this as a preview on the Mayoral election of 2005.