page_title: Heritage of Pride
hierarchical_section_title: Heritage of Pride
caption_attribution_description: English: View of spectators along Christopher Street, New York City Gay Pride Parade, 2003.
context_page_description: Heritage of Pride, doing business as NYC Pride, is a 501 non-profit organization that produces the official New York City LGBTQIA+ Pride Week events each June. HOP began working on the events in 1984, taking on the work previously done by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee, organizers of the first March in 1970. HOP also took over responsibility for the operations of NYC's Pride festival and Pride Rally. It was that first march which brought national attention to 1969's Stonewall Riots. The late sixties saw numerous protests and riots across the United States on many social injustices and from general political unrest including the war in Vietnam. Few Marches have left a legacy like this organization continues; it is a global human rights issue not yet resolved.
  After June 1970's events in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Pride chapters formed in cities across the US. Pride London was the first non-US city to rise in support of Gay Rights in 1972 and Pride festivals now occur on six continents. The official LGBTQIA+ Pride events for New York City end on the last Sunday of each June.
context_section_description: Heritage of Pride (HOP), doing business as NYC Pride, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that produces the official New York City LGBTQIA+ Pride Week events each June. HOP began working on the events in 1984, taking on the work previously done by the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee, organizers of the first March in 1970. HOP also took over responsibility for the operations of NYC's Pride festival and Pride Rally. It was that first march which brought national attention to 1969's Stonewall Riots. The late sixties saw numerous protests and riots across the United States on many social injustices and from general political unrest including the war in Vietnam. Few Marches have left a legacy like this organization continues; it is a global human rights issue not yet resolved.
  After June 1970's events in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Pride chapters formed in cities across the US. Pride London was the first non-US city to rise in support of Gay Rights in 1972 and Pride festivals (or Christopher Street Days) now occur on six continents. The official LGBTQIA+ Pride events for New York City end on the last Sunday of each June. Additional New York City events in the outer boroughs are organized by Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island Pride chapters. Antarctica has yet to officially organize a Pride chapter, but in 2016, it was declared the world's first LGBT friendly continent.
  HOP is a volunteer spearheaded organization working by Robert's Rules 50 weeks a year to execute the activities of NYC Pride Week. The voting membership elects two volunteer Co-Chairs onto an Executive Board composed of Committee Directors (also volunteers) and their Executive Director (the most senior of staff). Until 2002 all NYC Pride Week activities were organized solely by volunteers. That January Anthony D. Dean began work as the first full-time paid Business Development Director of NYC Pride events. By late 2016 HOP had five employees working year-round from a rented basement office on Christopher Street. They assist in coordinating the desires of Membership- who work on behalf of the larger community. Membership is open to all individuals.
  What began as a March has grown to more than a dozen events which compose NYC PRIDE week including The March, The Rally, PrideFest, and Pride Island- a multi-day cultural experience that is an evolution from HOP's Dance on the Pier (1987-2017). Pride Island is the final event held each year. Beginning with June 24, 1990 the closing event has culminated with the second largest annual fireworks display in Manhattan, bested only by Macy's 4th of July Fireworks. HOP's Stonewall50 Planning Committee began work in July, 2009. Additional programming was envisioned for the coming years and by 2011 new events had become a reality. This would eventually lead to a successful bid for the first US hosted WorldPride, Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019. 
  The concept for WorldPride events were established in 1997 when HOP hosted the 16th annual conference of InterPride.  The first of these was WorldPride Rome 2000, followed by Tel Aviv, London, Toronto and Madrid. It's not odd to think that Pride chapters grew around the world as quickly as they did. LGBTI Human Rights violations are not tied to any one country and from that injustice stems many passionate acts, some brave and others not.  Passion is appropriate for a Pride organization carrying the torch for the Stonewall rioters, they too were brave as were the 5,000 Marchers in the 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day March. Just within the US Intimate Matters documents government intrusion into SGM lives and how they asked citizens to turn in suspected individuals, as far back as colonial times. Gay New York furthers the documentation with a detailed look at the homosexual and heterosexual social structures and political landscape between 1890 and 1940. By 1969, sting operations and raids of gay bars had become routine.
  During Pride Month an organization such as HOP brings together many facets of the community asking they join voices and speak as one. In
caption: Millions of spectators gather every year for New York City's Pride March.
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E2500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.1.2", "Image DateTime": "2006:09:03 15:01:39", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.3.9", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "262", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1818", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9164", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "10/4591", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2003:06:29 15:19:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2003:06:29 15:19:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "29/10", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "28/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1600", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1200", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed"}