Chelsea Piers in Heart of Queer NYC Hosts Homophobia for Pride
Sports complex refuses to be responsible for “views”
Why is a notorious homophobic demagogue set to speak in the heart of NYC’s LGBTQ community? And why now?
It’s Pride! Time to protest, party, and honor everything queer! LGBTQ people are less concentrated in “gayborhoods” than we used to be, but New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, just a skip and jump from the Stonewall Inn where Pride got its riotous 1969 kickoff, remains a densely packed gayborhood. Queer people live, work, and play together in an atmosphere of near-total normality and acceptance.
Chelsea really is Pride Central!
Imagine closeted, former military me landing in Chelsea as a young refugee in 1990 — shocked, delighted, and learning to cope with being NORMAL for the first time in my life. Imagine how I met a man, fell in love, moved in, and attended synagogue with him as part of an out/proud gay couple. Imagine how I learned my downstairs neighbor’s teenage son was gay — when he and his new boyfriend smiled at me as they strolled hand-in-hand down crowded 8th Avenue, without a care in the world.
