While Los Angeles’s Pride celebrations will feature a star-studded lineup of singers and actors, New York City’s parade grand marshalls will be mostly activists this year.
Drag Race judge Michelle Visage will be the sole entertainment personality riding a float down the parade. Otherwise, led by the elder trans icon Miss Majors, the rest of the grand marshalls will have a more community-oriented bent. Three of the activists will be youth and she says that is important to her.
Miss Majors, who has been in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights for decades, said, “It wasn’t a movement as much as we (the trans guys and gurls) just wanted the cops to stop beating us up every chance they got. It is important for the younger trans generation to know… it was trans people who started it all at Stonewall in 1969. I hope that in discovering their history, they will feel empowered to do more to make sure that these anti-trans laws do not rear their ugly heads ever again. To do that, the trans youth must unite, stand tall, and be counted for who they are!”
Author and advocate Raquel Willis, who is also trans, will be another of the grand marshalls and she added to Miss Majors thoughts about knowing the community’s history.
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“I’m honored to be chosen as a Grand Marshal for NYC Pride,” she said. “I wouldn’t be who I am and know my power without the influences of my transistors.”
Eshe Ukwell, Baddie Brooks, and Robin Drake, three inspiring young leaders, will join DaShawn Usher, Senior Director of Communities of Color and Media at GLAAD, to complete the grand marshall line-up.
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