Let’s Hear It For New York!
© Barry Blitt for the New Yorker.
Let’s Hear It For New York!
I totally recommend playing the video for the musical accompaniment.
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There’s nothing you can’t do,
Now you’re in New York,
these streets will make you feel brand new,
Big lights will inspire you,
let’s hear it for New York, New York, New York!
Who Doesn’t Love The Brooklyn Bridge?
Lady Liberty Has Never Been More Welcoming...
Not a resolution, but a very significant step closer to ensuring loving LGBT couples will not be torn apart by Federal Department of Homeland's discriminatory immigration policy.
Brick by brick, the hurtful wall of DOMA is coming down.
The contributions the LGBT community makes to New York are not second-class, and no longer is their citizenship. Pioneering dance choreographers Tommy Tune and Alvin Ailey are two of hundreds of thousands of LGBT New Yorkers who helped make NYC a worldwide destination vacation hotspot. Their claim to full equality has been affirmed by the state today.
Poet, feminist, activist, writer, lesbian, Audre Lorde. An LGBT health clinic in Chelsea bears her name, the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center.
A Gay & Glee-ful Celebration of New York!
(Pssssst! Religious Right? When the hottest, most-popular, top-rated teen show on American TV is is gayer than
Johnny Weir taking Adam Lambert to a Lady Gaga concert, you've already lost.)
Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns are two more of the gay community's notables who helped distinguish New York as a hub of the American, and a global, arts scene.
Take It Away, Frank & Liza!
Last fall, New Yorker and LGBT activist Lt. Dan Choi, upon receiving his West Point ring back from Senate majority leader Harry Reid, facetiously tweeted:
“The next time I get a ring from a man, I expect it to be
for full, equal, American marriage.”
Until Defense of Marriage Act is gone, our men and women in same-sex marriages
who serve our country will still be treated unequally. DOMA must go.
I went looking for Joy,
Slim, dancing Joy,
Gay, laughing Joy,
Bright-eyed Joy–
And I found her
Driving the butcher’s cart
In the arms of the butcher boy!
Such company, such company,
As keeps this young nymph, Joy!
Langston Hughes, 1926
No need to cross the border at Niagara Falls to get married anymore! This Canadian photographer is already soliciting your same-sex business, make them come to the States!
Stonewall Riots, Greenwich Village, 1969. You've come a long way, baby.
Sylvia Rivera was a transgender activist one of many involved in Stonewall. She fought her whole life for equality. Her life's dream has been realized when Metropolitan Community Church opened Sylvia's Place, a shelter and resource to help LGBT homeless teens. She is smiling today, somewhere, but funding for these programs are under serious attack. We can't let our gratitude to Governor Cuomo buy him a pass on that. Petition here.
The fight's not over: the state, and Mayor Bloomberg too, need pushing on
the issue of HIV, more here. Let us also build on this victory to finally pass the GENDA trans-non-discrimination bill in 2012. It's past time.
Brooklyn in the house! Star of LGBT blogosphere (and my personal friend) Pam Spaulding was raised in Brooklyn. Cause that's the kind of fierceness that comes out of the BK! Come home and marry Kate at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens! I wanna dance at your wedding!
Take A Bow!
The LGBT, Democratic and progressive community was firing on all cylinders in this victory. From the highest offices of power, to the lowliest grassroots action, New Yorkers engaged allies in every corner of the state, every constituency.
It absolutely could not have happened without the strong, public and private leadership of Governor Cuomo, thank you Governor! A special thanks to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Senator Chuck Schumer who worked in ways both public and private. This is a "state issue" far too many Federally elected figures take a pass on "getting involved in." Kirsten in particularly, didn't go that route, she pulled out all the stops, and she's a tireless champion the state and national LGBT community is lucky to have in their corner.
And every Senator and Assembly member that voted to make this happen can take pride they have helped usher in a very historic moment in the struggle for LGBT equality and fairness. History will remember them fondly, as will voters. Special thanks to those who reconsidered previous positions of opposition. Special thanks to those who've stuck with us from day one, and worked to bring their colleagues onboard.
It also couldn't have happened without the LGBT community of New York State—affiliated with an advocacy group or not—laying a strong foundation of support, from New York harbor to the falls of Niagara. They brought the public-approval polling for this well into a super-majority. Often it was merely the act of living out and proud, but in other ways both grand and intimate they lobbied and persuaded and brought the people of state and their legislators to endorse equality under the law. Well over 750 progressive leaders of Faith also stepped up and reminded our legislators the Christian and Faith community is not soley represented by the noisy religious right, or the Catholic Church on this issue of civil marriage recognition.
Clearly the coalition of advocacy groups collectively known as New Yorkers United for Marriage hit a grand slam providing public engagement and lobbyist support, and assembled a very impressive and diverse coalition of cross-support. Each individual group deserves their share of the credit. They are Empire State Pride Agenda, Freedom To Marry, Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Equality New York, and the Log Cabin Republicans.
And it really must be acknowledged, with a Republican majority controlled Senate, this victory could not have happened without the consent of at least some Republicans. And in the state of New York, sufficient numbers of Republicans were able to look past partisan divides, past party ideology, past the bully tactics of the far right and see; this is not fundamentally an issue of liberal vs. conservative, this is fundamentally an issue of doing what is right with secular laws of our government. May they listen to their party colleagues, like Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who doubtlessly helped decouple this civil rights issue from petty, partisan politics.
♥ And they were also able to see, love should always be celebrated, not condemned. ♥
It Ain’t A Gay Party Until Madonna Shows!
Let Us Not Forget...
As Madonna says above, "New York is not for little pussies who scream."
The Empire State isn't frightened by your demagoguery or naive enough to cower to your lies and slander. We didn't get played by an out-of-state special-interest group of carpet-baggers.
Your little hate-mongering, grifter game is circling the toilet like the load of crap it is.
★ ★ ★ The Official Anthem of Clarknt67 ★ ★ ★
New York City boy (New York City)
★ ★ ★ This is your reward day ★ ★ ★
(You’ll never have a bored day)
’Cause you’re a New York City boy (New York City)
Where Seventh Avenue meets Broadway
’Cause you’re a New York City boy
Where Seventh Avenue meets Broadway
11:33 PM PT: Great celebratory coverage of my evening in the New York Daily News, including this awesome picture.