As Hell’s Kitchen celebrated PRIDE, one of the biggest parties was the W52nd Street Community Pride Festival on Sunday afternoon. The non-stop stage performances were interrupted early evening by New York’s Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped into the festivities.
Mayor Adams shared words (and many selfies) as he greeted the LGBTQIA+ crowd on W52nd Street between 8/9th Avenue at just before 6pm. The event was presented by GOAL (the Gay Officers Action League) alongside Boxers and Hush. Gay bar co-owner Bob Fluet was on hand to welcome the Mayor alongside many LGBTQ+ NYPD officers from GOAL.
“It’s really unfortunate when people believe that those who are in the NYPD are not proud of their gay and trans [colleagues]. It is really unfortunate. If you go back in time to when I was a rookie cop, those who inspired me to go to Albany and fight for marriage were those members of GOAL. Those members of GOAL who stood up and fought for years by saying, ‘you can be trans and gay and a police officer,’” said Adams about his experiences during the 1980s in the police force with GOAL and LGBTQIA+ rights.
The Mayor added: “I remember the foundation of GOAL. I knew what GOAL stood for. I saw what they did during those times. I saw those who fought and made the foundation, the Harvey Milks, those who stood up for what was not popular. It is popular now to many, but it was not popular in 1984, 85, 86, 88, 89, 90 and throughout.”
Adams said to the hundreds gathered at the event that he would always stand with the LGBTQIA+ community — and in particular, the police officers who are members of GOAL. “Keep doing what you’re doing. Thank you so much for doing this event. Please stand strong.”
The event took over the whole street and was based around HUSH, one of Hell’s Kitchen’s queer spaces — which replaced Therapy during the pandemic.
