Attack tempers gay pride events

Stepped-up security, Orlando memorials mix with merriment

Participants in the 47th annual Chicago Pride Parade on Sunday carry pictures of the victims killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Participants in the 47th annual Chicago Pride Parade on Sunday carry pictures of the victims killed in the Pulse nightclub shooting.

NEW YORK -- Rainbow flags were held high along with portraits of the dead as thousands of people marched Sunday in gay pride parades tempered by this month's massacre at a Florida gay nightclub.

Onlookers stood a dozen deep along Fifth Avenue for New York City's parade. Some spectators held up orange "We are Orlando" signs, and indications of increased security were everywhere, with armed officers standing by. An announcer introducing state officials and guests also shouted out, "Love is love! New York is Orlando!" in memory of the 49 people killed in Florida. Elected officials turned out in force, as did presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

She walked several blocks of the march, joining New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Rev. Al Sharpton for a brief appearance at Stonewall Inn, the bar where a 1969 police raid helped catalyze the gay-rights movement.

President Barack Obama on Friday designated the site around the bar as the first national monument to gay rights.

On Sunday, with her Twitter handle appearing in rainbow colors, Clinton wrote: "One year ago, love triumphed in our highest court. Yet LGBT Americans still face too many barriers. Let's keep marching until they don't. -H"

Authorities had expected a larger-than-usual crowd, and 15-year-old Chelsea Restrepo of Staten Island was among the onlookers. She had brushed aside her father's concerns about security to attend the march for the first time.

"What happened in Orlando made me want to come more," said Restrepo, swathed in a multicolored scarf. She said she wanted to show her support.

New York's parade was one of several being held Sunday across the country, along with San Francisco's and Chicago's. They came two weeks after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

In Chicago, 49 marchers at the head of the parade each held aloft a poster-sized photograph of a different Orlando victim as the procession wound through the city. Above each photo were the words, "Never forget."

Despite the somber start, paradegoers seemed as enthusiastic as ever once marchers and floats began moving, cheering and dancing along the route. Many participants said the tributes to the dead in Orlando didn't dampen the energy and fun associated with the pride parade.

"It is another on a list of brutalities over the years [against gays]," said Joe Conklin, 74, of Chicago, as he sat on the back of a float waiting for the OK to move out. "We're aware of Orlando but not overwhelmed by it."

It was a similar feeling in San Francisco, where men in glittery white wings walked on stilts and women in leather pants rode motorcycles as the parade moved along.

Richel Desamparado of Oakland was marching and carrying a photo of Orlando victim Stanley Almodovar. She said she felt the need to remind people the fight for equality is not over. "A lot of my gay friends and relatives are still being shunned away by their families and communities," said Desamparado, 31. "People need to remember we're still fighting for equality."

Security was ramped up at the events. New York police deployed roving counterterrorism units and used bomb-sniffing dogs, rooftop observation posts, police helicopters and thousands of officers to provide extra layers of security at Sunday's parade. Thousands of uniformed officers lined the route, supplemented by plainclothes officers in the crowd.

San Francisco spectators faced metal detectors for the first time, and more police than usual were keeping watch.

Chicago police put 200 more officers than usual on duty for that city's pride parade Sunday. Organizers nearly doubled their corps of private security agents to 160.

At a gay street parade in Turkey, a prominent German lawmaker and outspoken gay-rights advocate was temporarily detained Sunday when he wanted to speak publicly at the end of Pride Week. Turkish police have repeatedly in recent days prevented activists from participating in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rallies.

For all the security and solemnity, some spectators at pride parades this month have made a point of making merry.

"We had fun. That is what gay people do," comedian Guy Branum wrote in a New York Times essay after attending the West Hollywood parade. "Our answer to loss and indignity, it seems, is to give a party, have a parade and celebrate bits of happiness."

Meanwhile, hospital officials said survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 visited patients injured in the Orlando nightclub shooting.

An Orlando Regional Medical Center statement said 10 bombing survivors and their service dogs visited the Pulse patients on Saturday.

Celeste Corcoran was a double amputee after the bombing. She met with Pulse survivor Angel Colon and said it helps to talk with "someone who has been through similar situations." Corcoran's daughter told Colon that the Boston and Orlando survivors "are family now."

Eliza Gedney and Michelle L'Heureux invited Pulse survivor Rodney Sumter to Boston for the marathon next April. According to the hospital, Sumter said he wanted to be there.

The statement said eight Pulse patients remain at the hospital. Five are stable and three are in critical condition.

Information for this article was contributed by Verna Dobnik, Jennifer Peltz, Tom Hays, Michael Tarm, Haven Daley and staff members of The Associated Press.

A Section on 06/27/2016

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