#PrideAndPrejudice: 2 Million Cheered, Hillary Marched & There’s More Work To Do…

Yesterday, was an amazing Pride March in New York City. Estimates say 300,000 people marched, 2 million watched and Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic candidate for President, marched along with them. (Clinton is the first Presidential candidate from a major political party to participate in a Pride march, although not the first time she’s marched with us.)

And yesterday was also my WOW anniversary. It was three years ago that I started writing for The Wow Report with this post;

“…I couldn’t be more thrilled to report, as today was to be the first post of mine for the WOW Report, that I have some good news to start with… REALLY good news. Where do you go for a visual for such good news, if not a rainbow flag waving in front of The Monster? Across the street to The Stonewall Inn, natch. Just now, every news organization you can think of had their cameras pointed at the venerable old façade, now a historic landmark. On the (high) heels of Gay Pride here in New York City, and just two days shy of the 44th anniversary of the Stonewall riots…”

I finished that first post with this,

“A Facebook post from my openly gay Congressman, Sean Patrick Maloney;

‘I just called Randy to congratulate him on the Supreme Court ruling and, well, choked up. Guess I didn’t really believe until right now — after 21 years and 3 kids, we can be married legally under federal law. God bless America!‘”

Just one year ago at this time, The Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage was legal. Incredible progress! Below is a shot of the now married Maloney and husband Randy Florke walking hand in hand in the march. Also, a shot of my openly gay NYC Councilman, Corey Johnson in drag at the march as Carla Zeta-Jones!

We live in incredible times. Just last week, President Obama official declared The Stonewall Inn a national monument. Look at the progress we’ve seen. And look at the pain. Just two weeks ago, the worst mass shooting in American history with 49 slain in Orlando. Horrific homophobic rants by preachers in the U.S. and inaction in the GOP to do ANYTHING about gun control.

The newly formed Gays Against Guns (GAG) marched in the parade too and there has been an outcry in the community to take on the NRA.

Yesterday, I posted part 1 of Ruben Natal-San Miguel‘s Pride photos here and he shot all day Sunday to bring us part 2. But he was delayed in getting me photos. Last night as he was walking home in Harlem two men sitting on a stoop yelled at him,

“Allah is great. Kill them all.“

Furious, Ruben went home, called the police, got a baseball bat and confronted the men. He saw them arrested and is pressing charges. Still shaken, we exchanged messages last night and he’s editing his pictures this morning. (Btw, Ruben is latin, and his sister lost a friend in Orlando.)

I tell Ruben’s story (with permission) to illustrate the point there are many factors at work against us, as well as for us. The struggle is real, the progress is real, and the danger is REAL. Be hopeful, be vigilant, be careful, be kind and be FIERCE. Choose your battles and fight them like your life depends on it –because it does.