Highlighting this month’s Pride festivities, the Gay Pride March will kick off at noon on Sun., June 24, at 36th St. and Fifth Ave.
The Pride March, originated in 1970, is an annual civil rights demonstration that recognizes those who fight AIDS and those who have lost their lives due to the disease, as well as those who have been targeted by violence and crime.
The procession will begin gathering around 11 a.m. This year’s march grand marshals are singer Cyndi Lauper; Chris Salgardo, president of Kiehl’s; and Chelsea residents Phyllis Siegel, 77, and Connie Kopelov, 85, who were the first same-sex couple to get hitched at the marriage bureau on Worth St. on July 24 of last year after the state legalized gay marriage.
Pridefest, the annual L.G.B.T. street fair, is held after the Pride March. The street fair attracts many out-of-area visitors, joining with the locals in support of equality. This year’s fair is the 19th annual. The event runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Hudson St. between Abingdon Square and W. 14 St.
Lauper, aside from being a grand marshal, will give a special performance at the Dance on The Pier, which runs from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. after The March at Pier 57, at W. 17th St. The dance is usually held at the open blacktop Pier 54, but small creatures called marine borers have been “boogieing” beneath the W. 13th St. pier, gnawing its wooden piles, forcing a large portion of it to be closed off.
