Pride March Set to Kick Off Sunday; ACT UP, JVP Call Stonewall an ‘Intifada’

IN THE VILLAGE SUN | Pride will be on full display as thousands take to the streets for the annual March Sunday.

Kickoff will be at noon at 25th Street and Fifth Avenue. The procession, in the spirit of celebration, will then proceed down to 8th Street in Greenwich Village, turn right crossing 8th Street, Greenwich Avenue and Christopher Street, passing the Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of gay liberation, then will go up 7th Avenue to 16th Street in Chelsea, where everyone will disperse.

This year, controversy rages, as members of the Israeli consulate have announced that they will march despite the fact that, according to the Associated Press, two of the event’s six marshals accuse the country of “genocide” in its war to eradicate Hamas after the terrorist group’s horrific surprise attack on October 7. Although Israel is an inclusive society with the strongest LGBT rights of any country in the Middle East, some critics nevertheless try to accuse it of “pinkwashing.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently said that the “intense phase” of fighting in Gaza should be over in about a month, after which Israel will move some of its troops to its northern border to defend against aggression from Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based terrorist organization.

The first New York Pride March took place in 1970, a year after the Stonewall riots.

President Joe Biden and singer Elton John were on Christopher Street on Friday to attend the opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center.

“It set an example, I’m not exaggerating, for the whole world,” Biden said of the uprising 55 years ago, when gays and drag queens fought back against one of the raids then regular police. “That’s what this center, this monument, this month is for.”

Despite Biden’s disappointingly weak performance in Thursday night’s debate, which sent many Democrats into panic mode with the presidential election just four months away, he received a rousing reception downtown.

“I saw a large crowd waiting for over an hour and a half in the sun to see Biden pass as he headed to Stonewall,” one local resident said. “And they cheered heartily!”

Earlier in the day, however, Jewish Voices for Peace and ACT UP – the latter of which has recently focused on the Israeli-Palestinian issue – posted banners and posters around the village with the message: “Queers to Biden: Stop Funding Israel. » The materials were displayed at the NYC AIDS Monument in the St. Vincent Triangle and other locations, including two blocks from Cubbyhole, a lesbian bar on W 12th Street.

Some posters refer to the Stonewall riots as an “Intifada” and depict bricks being thrown from slingshots.