Drag March in a Wide Open Town

 

"Hundreds Of Drag Queens and Kings filled the streets for the 27th annual New York City Drag March, an annual drag protest and visibility march taking place in June 25, 2021 as a kick-off to NYC Pride weekend, coinciding ahead of the NYC Pride March, both demonstrations commemorate the 1969 riots at the Stonewall Inn, widely considered the pivotal event sparking the gay liberation movement, and the modern fight for LGBT rights. (Photo and caption by Erik McGregor)."

 

Brownie, Ildar, this blogger, and Jamie Leo.

Photos by Jamie Leo.

Snapshots with friends. 

Monica Hunken, Steven Love, and JK now and forever.

“Protect trans kittens!!!”

 

“We are homosexuals and we’d like a drink.”

"Protect trans children!"

 

“Queer people used to live here,” we screamed as we arrived at the Stonewall Inn,

where the riots began 52 years prior.

 

“We’re here. We’re queer.  We’re coming for your children.”

 

“10% is not enough, recruit, recruit, recruit!”

 

“We don’t want to marry, we just want to fuck!”

 

It was the 27^th annual drag march, beginning pride weekend.  Each year, our city turned

into a carnival here; up is down, down is up. The Drag March is our Mardi Gras.

A huge crowd

of queers, faeries, gawkers, polyamorous hets, gender non-conforming youth,

 people arrived

and snapped photos of each other. For a moment everyone is a star.

My kids came.  Brian from the Church Ladies came in chaps.

Randy Wicker was there, greeting everyone.

We talked about his days with Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia.

JC rode Rollerena.

Huck brought wheel chairs.

More and more elders were on hand.

So were the youth with colored hair from the park, not quite ready to assume an identity.

Dean Spade and I talked about the gender non-conforming youth trying to find a way.

 

Everyone wants a little of the free spirit.

 

It flew through the trees, across the city as we marched from Tompkins to Stonewall,

as the sun went down, singing and screaming and dancing along the way, running into friends

we have not seen for ages.

 

Huckelfaery Ken welcomed the spirits… inviting everyone to create a more

 inclusive space,one with kindness and sign language, wheel chairs for elders,

and youngsters from the park.

The Drag March is not a professional march.

Its not the women’s march or heritage of pride, where rules and restrictions and schisms that

impede access or dull down dreams.

Its open to us all.

 

The city is open again.

 

Mary Tylor Moore’s Theme and Somewhere Over the Rainbow filled the

air in a celebration

of living and being alive.

 

More and more joined us, filling the street in front of the fabled bar, with dancing

 bodies, free for a moment.

 

You look wonderful everyone greeted each other.

What a dream.

              Waiting for the march to begin, VJ Trans snapped a few shots of Brian, this blogger and kids.