NEW YORK–“I want you to know that Orlando and the world’s gay community are strong and united,” Barbara Poma said. “We will not allow evil to prevail.” The owner of the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, where 49 members of the LGBT community were massacred two weeks previously, sat atop the lead float in the Pride Parade that made its way through the streets of Manhattan with crowds estimated at 2 million.
In his weekly address, President Obama said there is more work to be done toward full LGBT rights.
Columbia University law professor Suzanne Goldberg told CBS News having the president designate Stonewall as a national monument is significant.
“This is a tremendous marker in the trajectory of LGBT rights and really American history because it places the lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual movement in the pantheon of American civil rights,” Goldberg said.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton made history when she marched for four blocks in the parade, stepping out of a black SUV in Greenwich Village, to join stunned marchers at the Pride event. Surrounded by her own security detail, Clinton was joined in the parade by a horde of dignitaries eager to share in her spotlight. Among them were Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, who momentarily put aside their on-going feud. No one was more spotlight hogging however than the Rev. Al Sharpton, who never left Clinton’s side no matter how hard other tried to nudge him away.
Though Clinton did not speak at the event, she certainly did her share of smiling and waving with the occasional stressful venturing to the police barricades to shake hands.
According to the New York Times, her presence resonated, attendees said, by communicating a measure of solidarity in a wrenching moment.
Near Bleecher Street, a man with a microphone ripped at the frenzied crowd with, “The next president of the United States! Make some noooo-ooooiise.” And, of course, they did.
As a “Hillary” chant began to build, Clinton stopped to briefly acknowledge the crowd, mindful of those behind her who were eager to advance the parade.
And then she was gone as quickly as she arrived, to be whisked off at 2 pm into another SUV for a flight to Indiana, where she addressed the
By about 2 p.m., Mrs. Clinton was hustled into a waiting vehicle, waving once more before heading for a flight to Indiana where she addressed a crowd about the impact of Britain’s recent vote to leave the European Union.
Photo Credit: ooyuz.com
