Heritage of Pride (HOP), doing business as NYC Pride, is a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of ...

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that plans and produces the official

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

LGBTQIA+ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is an ...

Pride Week events each June. HOP began working on the events in 1984, taking on the work previously done by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee organizers of the first NYC Pride March in 1970. HOP also took over responsibility for the operations of NYC's Pride festival and Pride Rally. It was that first march which brought national attention to 1969's

Stonewall Riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of ...

. The late sixties saw numerous protests and riots across the United States on many social injustices and from general political unrest including the war in Vietnam. After events in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago in June 1970, Pride chapters formed in cities across the US.

Pride London Pride in London is an annual LGBT pride festival and parade held each summer in London, England. The event, which was formerly run by Pride London, is sometimes referred to as London Pride. Pride in London celebrates the diversity of the LGBTQ ...

was the first non-US city to rise in support of Gay Rights in 1972 and Pride festivals (or

Christopher Street Day Christopher Street Day (CSD) is an annual European LGBTQ+ celebration and demonstration held in various cities across Europe for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, and against discrimination and exclusion. It is Germany's and Switzerland's counterp ...

s) now occur on six

continent A continent is any of several large landmasses. Generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, up to seven geographical regions are commonly regarded as continents. Ordered from largest in area to smallest, these seven ...

s. The official LGBTQIA+ Pride events for New York City end on the last Sunday of each June. Additional New York City events in the outer boroughs are organized by

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, and

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...

Pride chapters.

Organization

HOP is a volunteer-spearheaded organization working by Robert's Rules 50 weeks a year to execute the activities of NYC Pride Week. The voting membership elects two volunteer co-chairs onto an executive board composed of Committee Directors (also volunteers) and their executive director (the most senior of staff). Until 2002 all NYC Pride Week activities were organized solely by volunteers. That January Anthony D. Dean began work as the first full-time paid Business Development Director of NYC Pride events. By late 2016 HOP had five employees working year-round from a rented basement office on

Christopher Street Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue. It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher St ...

. They assist in coordinating the desires of Membership, who work on behalf of the larger community. Membership is open to all individuals.

Events

What began as a March has grown to more than a dozen events which compose NYC PRIDE week including The March, The Rally, PrideFest, and Pride Island, a multi-day cultural experience that is an evolution from HOP's Dance on the Pier (1987–2017). Pride Island is the final event held each year. Beginning with June 24, 1990, the closing event has culminated with the second largest annual fireworks display in Manhattan, bested only by Macy's 4 July Fireworks. HOP's Stonewall50 Planning Committee began work in July, 2009. Additional programming was envisioned for the coming years and by 2011 new events had become a reality. This would eventually lead to a successful bid for the first US hosted

WorldPride WorldPride, licensed by InterPride and organized by one of its member organizations, is an event that promotes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer ( LGBTQ pride) issues on an international level through parades, festivals and othe ...

Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 was a series of LGBTQ events and celebrations in June 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. It was also the first time WorldPride was held in the United States. Held primarily in the ...

. The concept for WorldPride events were established in 1997 when HOP hosted the 16th annual conference of

InterPride InterPride is the international organization that brings together Pride organizers from across the World to network, share knowledge, and maximize impact. To this end, Pride organizers design InterPride’s structure, programs, and initiatives, to ...

. The first of these was WorldPride Rome 2000, followed by Tel Aviv, London, Toronto, and Madrid. During Pride Month an organization such as HOP brings together many facets of the community asking they join voices and speak as one. In 2017 a new voice was added. ABC7 broadcast three hours of HOP's Pride March (the actual event run time was 9 hours, 38 minutes) as did their sister network covering the Chicago Pride Parade. Both networks continue to make that content available on the internet wherever there is access to such information, for the next year. The New York broadcast was nominated for a New York Emmy Award in both 2018 and 2019.

Pride March route

2017's NYC LGBT Pride March brought together more than 450 contingents including 110 floats. The route traversed

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping ...

below the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

and after turning on 8th Street included more of

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. The 1970 March was up Sixth Avenue and ended with a Gay-In in Sheeps Meadow, Central Park. The route itself has changed direction and span many times. The March route in New York does pass in front of the

Stonewall Inn The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall, is a gay bar and recreational tavern in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City, and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which is widely considered to be the sin ...

, the location of the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of ...

which launched the modern gay rights movement.

Collaborations

Heritage of Pride is a founding member of InterPride and a member of Northeast Regional Pride (NERP), the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (IGLA), the

National Gay and Lesbian Task Force The National LGBTQ Task Force is an American social justice advocacy non-profit organizing the grassroots power of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community. Also known as The Task Force, the organization supports ac ...

, and the

International LGBTQ+ Travel Association The International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (abbreviated IGLTA, and formerly named the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association) is an association of tourism businesses that welcome the LGBTQ+ community. As of 2016, the association had membe ...

. The theme chosen for 2018 was "Defiantly Different". The opening event held on June 14, 2018, was HOP's inaugural Human Rights Conference, held at SUNY Global Center and included 20 different workshops and panel discussions. Programming was a collaborative effort of HOP, SUNY, United Nations,

GMHC The GMHC (formerly Gay Men's Health Crisis) is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected." His ...

, SAGE,

OutRight Action International OutRight Action International (OutRight) is a LGBTIQ human rights non-governmental organization that addresses human rights violations and abuses against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people. OutRight Action International docum ...

and The NYC LGBT Center with participation from a range of others including

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...

Weill Cornell The Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University is Cornell University's biomedical research unit and medical school located in Upper East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York. Weill Cornell Medicine is affiliated with ...

Center for Human Rights,

OutServe-SLDN OutServe-SLDN was a network of LGBT military personnel, formed as a result of the merger between OutServe and the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network. OutServe-SLDN was one of the largest LGBT employee resource groups in the world. OutServe was ...

, The Dru Project, and the Matthew Shepard Foundation. 2019's theme in New York and many other cities is Millions of Moments.

Awards

Heritage of Pride annually grants the Marsha P. Johnson "Don't Be Outraged, Be Outrageous" Award. The winner in 1995 was the float sponsored by the AIDS Prevention Action League. The winner in 2017 was Desmond is Amazing.

References

External links

*
Official NYC Pride websiteGuidetogay.com - Official NYC Pride international media partner
{{LGBT in New York LGBT organizations based in New York City Organizations based in New York City 1984 establishments in New York City 1984 in LGBT history Organizations established in 1984