Thousands Join March in N.Y. for Gay Rights

Tens of thousands of gay rights supporters marched joyously through the streets of New York on Sunday, congregating at a huge rally in Central Park, where they demanded equal treatment for gays and lesbians throughout the world.

The massive presence--as much a celebration as a political statement--commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which activists say signaled the start of the modern gay rights movement.

Almost five hours after the first contingent stepped off from the United Nations, demonstrators still filled the parade route leading to the park. The march, which was marked by a heavy police presence, was orderly and there were no arrests. Thousands of extra officers were called to duty, and city officials said it was one of the busiest days in the New York Police Department’s history.

“I am glad to be here, but I am still angry we don’t have equal rights in this country,” said Jim Fouratt, who was in the Stonewall Inn when police raided the Greenwich Village after-hours club on June 28, 1969, and a melee heard around the world ensued.

“Something happened, the same thing that happens with any oppressed minority group,” Fouratt said. “People got in touch with their anger and it fundamentally changed how we saw ourselves--we the lesbian and gay community around the world--and how the straight world saw us.”

Using the U.N. headquarters as a symbol, the demonstrators demanded that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights be extended to gays and lesbians.

Estimates of the number of marchers varied dramatically. Some gay groups put the crowd at 750,000, but police said only 90,000 to 100,000 turned up in the park.

“Everybody had a chance to exercise their rights to make the point they wanted to make. . . . My message today is this is a day of tolerance and respect,” said Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who took part in the parade and was greeted largely with cheers by the mainly gay crowds.

The parade began with a mile-long, multicolored flag--symbolizing lesbian and gay pride--that was carried by hundreds of marchers. In the first ranks, a contingent of riot veterans marched, followed by groups from around the world--many of whom had come to the city to participate in Gay Games IV, a weeklong gathering of 11,000 athletes who competed in more than 30 sports.

As marchers moved curb-to-curb up First Avenue, it was an extraordinary site--a sea of banners, balloons, signs, the huge flag held aloft--while crowds lining the sidewalks cheered.

Inmate rights groups, elected officials, AIDS service organizations and Native American contingents were among the marchers. Some people carried pictures of friends, relatives and companions who had died of AIDS.

One marcher held a sign asking: “How many of us will be alive for Stonewall 35?”

“It’s very important for people to see the numbers, that they realize we are not a fringe group of people,” said Bob, a 37-year-old New York resident who walked to the park but declined to give his last name. “We’re everywhere, we’re everyone. We come in all sizes and shapes and types.”

“This march today symbolizes the unity of all gay people integrating in with the rest of the world,” said Susana O’Docharty, an account executive at a broadcasting monitoring firm in Manhattan.

Many speakers at the rally repeated those themes.

“Homophobia pervades our history. We’re not here to wallow in victimization,” Martin Higara, a bisexual man with AIDS, told the crowd. “We refuse to be victims any longer. We’re here to tell the world: ‘No more business as usual.’ ”

The march also revealed tensions within the gay community, most notably in the form of a second march, unsanctioned by city officials, that began in Greenwich Village near the site of the now-closed Stonewall Inn.

The second march, stressing the fight against AIDS, moved up Fifth Avenue to Central Park and was much smaller, attracting about 8,500 people. Even though the paraders had no permit, police closed Fifth Avenue and allowed them to proceed to the park, where things were so orderly that scores of officers lounged on benches in the shade of trees.

After days of legal maneuvering, the smaller march was a bit of an anticlimax.

The Giuliani Administration, facing the prospect of major diversions of police from regular duty along the main route, had opposed the splinter march in court.

And the legal skirmishing was not without political overtones. Some mayoral advisers had worried about the possibility of violence a quarter of a century after the Stonewall Riots. Some gay groups have criticized Giuliani for being less than sympathetic to their concerns, citing efforts to cut funding for AIDS services and abolish the Mayor’s Office for the Lesbian and Gay Community.

Giuliani advisers denied any lack of sympathy, citing New York City’s budget difficulties as necessitating cuts in many areas, including parks, libraries and hospitals.

In the end, an informal compromise was worked out. Police simply ignored the issue of a permit.

Stonewall Inn, a gathering place for gays and transvestites, was an unlikely spot for a revolution.

At the time, many patrons charged that the club was controlled by the Mafia. When federal agents found that liquor being served at the club didn’t contain government stamps on the bottles, a raid was ordered. In and of itself, it should not have been an extraordinary occurrence; police at that time raided gay bars regularly, searching for violations.

But at the Stonewall Inn, the police clashed with patrons and the largely gay crowd outside. Some officers were even trapped in the bar while protesters tried to use a parking meter to batten down the front door. Eventually, the officers were freed, but several nights of disturbances followed.

The rioting became a rallying point for the gay liberation movement--and activists stressed the huge parade on Sunday showed how far that movement had come.

“This march means progress,” said Tom Price, a patron of the Stonewall Inn on the fateful night. “Twenty-five years ago, we couldn’t have done this.”