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N.Y. Scene: Pride edition

The first NYC Pride, begat from the Stonewall Rebellion in the infamous summer of 1969, had its humble yet spirited beginnings during the following summer in 1970 and has blossomed into one of the biggest and baddest Pride celebrations in the world. Official events last a full week, beginning with a rally on the second to last Saturday in June and ending with a march the last Sunday in June, and Pride parties continue until the wee hours of Monday morning.

This year, the quantity and quality of events for women were unparalleled. Just a few years ago, the thing for lesbians to do was to congregate on Hudson Street outside of Henrietta Hudson after the Pride March and sip warm beer from Dixie cups, hoping that the cops would believe you when you said your cup was filled with apple juice. Fast forward to 2010. On Saturday, June 26 alone, there were at least five mega parties for women being held simultaneously.

And I was crazy enough to hit as many events as I could without passing out. Although there were plenty more, I hit 13 in all: The Rally, Kiki, Stonewall, Proposition Pride, the NYC Dyke March, Rapture on the River, Choice C*nts, GirlNation Pride, TruckStop NY, the Pride March, a Pride house party, Stiletto Pride and Rodeo Disco. I hereby bring you the AfterEllen.com 2010 NYC Pride Marathon. All right, ladies — gird your loins. Let’s do this!

NYC Pride Rally @ SummerStage, Central Park – June 19, 2010

The first NYC Pride Rally was held one month after the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969; approximately 500 people gathered for a “Gay Power” demonstration in Washington Square Park. In 1997, the Rally moved midtown to Bryant Park. This year, the Rally was held in Central Park’s SummerStage, near 5th Ave and 72nd St. Like the Jeffersons, we’ve moved on up to the east side, next to some deluxe apartments in the sky.

Several nationally recognized speakers and activists, such as Lt. Dan Choi, gave motivational speeches between performances by well-known comedians and musicians. Among the musical acts were Billie Myers, the Broadway cast of Hair, and Meshell Ndegeocello.

At one point Billie Myers jumped off the stage and weaved through the crowd, much to everyone’s delight. Later on, Lt. Dan Choi gave a fiery speech, rousing the crowd to chant, “I am somebody!” before he marched off the stage.

Kiki Launch @ Mix Café and Lounge, Astoria, Queens – June 22, 2010

Next we move to the borough of Queens. Although most people would consider the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn to be the hubs of lesbian nightlife, the often overlooked borough Queens has its own thriving lesbian scene, including Bum Bum Bar and Chueca. Both venues draw a loyal crowd, but if you’re not into Latin music, your options are hopping on a train to Manhattan or taking the long ride to Brooklyn.

Two weeks ago during Pride week, Kiki, a new women’s party in Astoria, Queens was launched. Astoria is a neighborhood that is trendy enough to invite excellent bars, restaurants and cafes but low key enough not to attract the not so excellent hipster contingent. It is also where I live, so there was no way I was going to miss this.

A stream of familiar faces strolled into the room — women that would otherwise be headed towards Manhattan out of necessity, but since Kiki is within walking distance of pretty much all of Astoria, the R and N trains will be seeing less dyketastic patrons on Tuesday nights – unless the traffic is flowing east from Manhattan. Why leave home when a friendly place is just down the street? Cheers!

GirlNation Pride Downtown @ The Stonewall Inn — June 25, 2010

This is where it all began. 41 years ago, the original twisted sisters, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn, shouted “We’re Not Gonna Take It!”, busted up some of NYPD’s finest, and history was made. Back then, the Stonewall Inn was a seedy mafia joint that served unsanitary watered down beer. Nowadays, it’s a welcoming neighborhood West Village bi-level bar and nightclub that is host to a women’s night every Friday – and the beer is cold and fresh.

At 10:30, when I arrived, the downstairs bar was already packed with a mixed crowd of gay boys, fag hags, lesbians, drag queens, and anyone and everyone else who wanted to kick off Pride. The ladies started tricking into the second level around that time, and by 11pm, a steady stream of women was pouring in.

By 11:15pm the upstairs was packed. My friend and I headed outside, and the following scene unfolded. You can’t make this stuff up.

Someone on the sidewalk fired up Madonna‘s “Vogue” on a boom box, which inspired a group of drag queens to run into the middle of the street and start dancing. A crowd gathered in the street and cheered them on, thereby blocking all traffic on Christopher Street. Cars started piling up, and despite the irate honking, the revelers on the street refused to budge. Acknowledging defeat, the line of cars slowly backed up and took another route. A bystander grabbed some trash bags and threw them in the middle of the street to block any further party-pooping vehicles.

Then an ambulance barreled down Christopher Street, sirens blaring. The crowd momentarily scattered, and a drag queen in a wedding dress started sprinting down the street in front of the vehicle, arms flailing with expressive flair.

Only in New York.

Proposition Pride @ Slate Lounge

Next, my friend and I headed to the Flatiron District to Slate Lounge, home of the wildly popular Friday night women’s party, Proposition, which is normally held in one of the lounges. For Pride, though, the entire venue was reserved, and by 11:30pm, the entire place was standing shoulder to shoulder.

DJ Deka and DJ Tikka Masala (of Brooklyn’s “That’s My Jam” fame) were laying down blistering tracks that had the crowd jumping.

And now a gallery of the sexy ladies present:

Caliente!

Dyke March @ Bryant Park – June 26, 2010

At 5pm sharp, thousands of women stepped out of Bryant Park, turned the corner and marched down 5th Avenue in the 18th Annual NYC Dyke March. A protest march held annually without permits, participants “march for women’s visibility in the LGBTQI community, queer women’s rights, in protest of anti-lesbian violence, and in celebration of queer women’s lives.” While the Dyke March doesn’t target specific issues, such as marriage equality or Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, its all-encompassing mission allows participants to march for the issue of their choice.

The first National Dyke March took place on April 24, 1993, the day before the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Equal Rights and Liberation. The Lesbian Avengers planned that Dyke March to increase lesbian visibility and inclusion and to protest anti-lesbian violence and discrimination, and the first NYC Dyke March was held in June of 1993.

I asked Blair G., one of the organizers of the Dyke March, about the craziest event that occurred during a past March.

“In 1995, [Mayor] Giuliani wanted to alter the route of the Pride March so that it did not pass St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He threatened to arrest anyone who was nude, including women who were bare breasted. However, that year the NY Supreme Court had ruled that it was perfectly legal for women to go bare breasted as long as they were not doing it for soliciting or other commercial purposes.

Well, Giuliani expanded Pride to include the NYC Dyke March, an event where many women are known to go topless. One of the head marshals that year showed up with a flyer explaining the court ruling and distributed it to the marchers so they would know what to do if anyone got hassled for being topless. Then the organizers decided they would do a ‘moment of toplessness’ to show who was in control. The marshals passed the word through the crowd. And, when the march reached 23rd Street, the front marshals, who were marching in front of the banner, took off their shirts and started twirling them above their heads. When they did this, a huge number of the dykes in the march did the same thing, starting with those closest to the front and going towards the back like a wave. No one was arrested and many of the marchers, including the front and head marshals, marched bare-breasted down to Washington Square Park.”

This year, the only snag was a minor holdup at around 38th street. The organizers and police officers had a brief argument about the amount of lanes the marchers were allowed to take up. While this exchange was taking place, the crowd of women banged on drums and screamed, “Give us the streets!”

Never mess with an army of lesbians.

Now, there is a time for politics, and there is a time for partying. It’s time to party.

Rapture on the River @ Pier 54 — June 26, 2010

The annual Dance on the Pier, which is held the last Sunday of June, attracts close to 10,000 men. Seven years ago, Heritage of Pride decided that women should also have a chance to drink beer and dance on Chelsea Piers under a monstrous lighting setup, and Rapture on the River was born.

Although not as high profile as Dance on the Pier, around 3,000-4,000 women have attended in recent years. For many women, Rapture is used to pregame before the massive Saturday night women’s Pride events that have sprouted up all over Manhattan in recent years, and we will cover a few of those in turn.

Choice C–ts @ Santos Party House — June 26, 2010

The next stop was Choice C–ts at Santos Party House. Normally held in the lower level of the venue every last Saturday of the month, Choice C–ts Pride moved up to the main floor to accommodate the sizeable Pride crowd, and internationally-acclaimed DJ Princess Superstar was on the decks.

I ran into Ellie Conant, the brainchild behind the party, and I asked her to dish about it.

“We just won the 2010 Go Magazine Awards for most eclectic crowd, and before that we were written up in The Village Voice highlighting our diverse crowd. A lot of people like to say, ‘Check out our diverse crowd!’ but a lot of times in this city, we’re pretty segregated. Choice C–ts I can say, honestly, is one of the most diverse parties in the city. You have everyone from every racial and class background throwing down the Lower East Side hipster style, rock and roll action. You see a lot of tattoos, painted hair, painted faces, cut up clothing, s–t like that.”

I remarked that the style, although edgy and downtown, was a little more glittery and done up as compared to the more down tempo weekday Brooklyn scene. “Totally!” said Conant.

Conant continued, “Right now I’m working on getting Lady Sovereign here. I want Nervous But Excited, Hunter Valentine. This I want to be the platform — and I’m fighting to get the main floor, because the basement is just not cutting it. I want us to have the main floor. I don’t want the dykes to just be stuck in the basement anymore!”

Who can argue with that?

Girlnation Pride @ Point Break — June 26, 2010

Next I headed uptown to GirlNation, which was ending its six year run in its midtown location at Point Break, formerly known as Nation Bar and Grill. Only a few years ago, women’s nights were limited to weekdays or Sundays; it was difficult to convince bar or club owners to hand over their venues on the weekend for women’s parties. Until GirlNation launched in 2005 at Nation, a the multilevel venue with two bars, a balcony, a lounge and two dance floors, a weekly Saturday night event for women outside of the standard West Village lesbian bars was unheard of.

Host Hana, as usual, poured shots down the throats of partygoers straight from the bottle.

Although GirlNation has ended its run at its West 45th Street location, GirlNation will continue downtown at its new location at RF Lounge.

Truck Stop NY w/ Proposition and Shescape — Touch Nightclub — June 26, 2010

The next party was the talk of the town. L.A.-based Fuse Events teamed up with two of NYC’s top club promoters, Proposition and Shescape, to throw a party so energetic, over the top and sick that I’m at a loss of words to do it justice.

But I’ll try my best. Fuse Events throws a Friday night party in Los Angeles called Truck Stop, which features bartenders that dance and engage the crowd in their routines. At Truck Stop NYC, the bi-level club was packed wall to wall with hot women dressed to the nines, and every half an hour or so, Roxy on the Mic riled up the crowd, and the Truck Stop Girlz would storm the catwalk and perform a high energy dance routine choreographed to a pounding dance track punctuated with sound effects laid down by DJ Brynn Taylor. The routines were racy, over the top, and often included unsuspecting victims audience members.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ll just let the photographs do the talking.

I’ll pause here for a moment for you to rub your eyeballs and look though the photos again. And again.

A second floor balcony wrapped around the entire venue. At one point in the night, a paranoid woman stuck her hand in front of me and attempted to get me thrown out of the second floor balcony. “No paparazzi!” she yelled, motioning to a security guard. My camera was in fact turned off, hanging off my shoulder with the lens cap on. “Oh, I’m not here to take your photo,” I told her. “I’m just passing through to take photos of the deejay.” She continued, “Well, everyone wants to take my picture. I’ve been in way too many tabloids!” I looked closer to see who she was. Never seen her before in my life. I did notice, however, that she had bottle service, and she was not monitoring her beer bucket or liquor, because a passer by reached in and started rummaging through her beer bucket. I did not tell her.

I’ll end this segment with a quote from a partygoer, Helen Galarza. “My girlfriend claims that all I was doing the whole time was screaming, laughing hysterically and borderline crying tears of joy,” she said. “It was excessive and unhygienic. It was one of the best parties of the year!”

I believe that just about sums it up.

Pride March and Chat with Grand Marshal Constance McMillen – Sunday, June 27th, 2010

The next morning I trudged down to 35th Street, the jump off point for the shortened route of the Pride March and chatted briefly with Grand Marshal Constance McMillen, who shared Marshal duties with Lt. Dan Choi and Judy Shepard.

McMillen said she was looking forward to attending Southwest Community College in Memphis Tennessee next fall, and she emphasized that most colleges have an LGBT organization. “It’s just the high schools are the problem!” she added, laughing. When asked about the most exciting thing that she has experienced since the unfortunate prom incident, she replied, “So many great things have happened. I don’t think I can just pick one!” After being a special guest on Ellen and at The White House, I don’t think I could pick one either.

She also had some advice to other LGBT youths who have been met with prejudice and adversity. “I think that you should be proud of who you are, because I think that everybody has something special about them and something different. Diversity is a blessing to this world, so I think that you should embrace it, and stand up for yourself,” she said.

Amen, sister.

Pit Stop at Trinity Tam and Nell Stark’s House Party — An undisclosed location in Greenwich Village

Every race car driver and marathon runner needs refueling from time to time, so I decided to take a detour to a house party. Remember Trinity Tam and Nell Stark? They wrote a novel about lesbian vampires, which we wrote about in December – and you should read it to cleanse yourself from that Twilight nonsense. They had an après March gathering in their Greenwich Village condo, and they let me in despite the fact that I had a massive camera on me and threatened to use it and post their picture on AfterEllen, which, as you can see, I did.

Tam bristled when I characterized the beverage offering as “punch in a mop bucket.” “It’s white wine sangria in a mop bucket, heathen!” she clarified. Trinity Tam and Nell Stark — keepin’ it classy! I opted for one of Stark’s strawberry capirinhas instead, and it was excellent. Having refueled, I headed out to the next event.

Stiletto Pride, Cirque du Stiletto @ The Maritime Hotel Cabanas — June 27, 2010

Every late June in NYC, nature likes to push Pride revelers to their physical limits. Rarely in the history of NYC Pride has the temperature fallen to a level suitable for human habitation, much less gallivanting around for hours after downing several alcoholic beverages. Yet year after year, gays and lesbians stream onto the melting streets of NYC from subway entrances, like raw bricks being led to a kiln, to celebrate Pride. This year, the heat was especially oppressive. Pressing up against you from all sides like a vise, the thick humid air squeezed out drops of sweat the size of extra plump raisins and occasionally the will to live.

And that is why this was a stroke of genius.

“It was so hot that if I could have skipped the line and got dunked over and over again I would have!” exclaimed a partygoer.

The infamous dunk tank was at Stiletto, one of promoter Maggie C.’s award winning parties for women. Stiletto is held every Sunday at the Maritime Hotel Cabanas, and it was inspired by Sunday gatherings of women at The Abbey in Los Angeles. “When I lived in L.A., a massive group of lesbians would chill outside at the Abbey Sunday afternoons, which sort of sparked the idea to have something similar in NY,” she said.

During the summer months, the venue’s roof is removed, and the party starts during late brunch hours and lasts until midnight. This year’s carnival-themed Stiletto Pride came with several fun additions, such as a vodka snow cone machine, a massive grill, and, of course, the dunk tank. The party started around the time the first set of Pride marchers reached the West Village, and a sizeable contingent of the marchers and spectators didn’t stop marching at Christopher Street. They turned around and kept marching up Hudson Street and 9th Avenue – straight to the Maritime Hotel. By early evening, the line snaked down the stairwell, around the sidewalk and halfway down 17th Street. When I arrived at 6:45pm, both lounges were already packed.

I ran into Robin Gans, owner of GirlBar Los Angeles, who was chilling with Hana of GirlNation. Of course, I asked her to comment on the New York scene. “I love L.A. and I love New York, because New York is my hometown – and New York girls have always been hipper and hotter, and have great style, so I’m always so thrilled to have GirlBar bring a little of the New York Scene to L.A.,” she said.

Lest you think I am trying to start beef between the two cities, think of the relationship between New York and Los Angeles as a long distance relationship between two A-type personalities — there will always be some rivalry between the two, but then they have really hot sex together. Case in point: TruckStop NY the night before was an over-the-top bi-coastal orgy, and at Stiletto, L.A.-based DJ Brynn Taylor was yet again on the decks rocking New York with her dance beats.

Back to the dunk tank. You didn’t think I would leave without getting dunked, right? Maggie C. dared me to get in the dunk tank, although she failed to inform me that she was the pitcher of her softball team prior to this.

Maggie C.: 1

Grace Chu: 0

No, scratch that. Getting dunked in that intolerable weather was definitely a win for me. Sorry, Maggie! Grace Chu FTW!

Rodeo Disco 2 @ Mason Dixon — Sunday, June 27th, 2010

The last stop on the NYC Pride Marathon was Mason Dixon, where Autostraddle closed out NYC Pride with their second annual Pride event, Rodeo Disco. In keeping with the bi-coastal love theme, Club Skirts The Dinah’s DJ Saratonin flew in from Los Angeles to throw down some beats.

A gaggle of celesbians were in attendance, including MTV’s Rachel Robinson, Aneesa Ferreira from Real Word Chicago, Hilary of Logo’s Gimme Sugar: Miami, and I’m sure all of you recognize these ladies:

The star of the event, though, was the mechanical bull. Yes, you read that correctly. There was a mechanical bull. Quite a few of the ladies that were present attempted to tame the bull, but the bull and the forces of gravity had a strategic pact, and each brave rider soon came face to face with the floor in front of a sizeable crowd of raucous lesbians.

This concludes AfterEllen.com’s NYC Pride Marathon, which, in retrospect, was far more physically grueling and inspired more moments of open-mouthed disbelief than The Dinah, which I didn’t think was possible. Am I glad I did it? Yes. Would I do it again? Unlikely. Next year’s AfterEllen.com’s NYC Pride Marathon will consist of me hugging Trinity Tam and Nell Starks’s mop bucket for dear life.

All photographs by Grace Chu unless otherwise noted. Note: If I took your picture, and you don’t see it here, you can try looking for it at my pride gallery on Flickr.

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