'Sweet, sweet joyous Pride gig': New Yorkers eagerly await Pride March

GREENWICH VILLAGE, Manhattan (PIX11) – Are you ready for the Pride March?

New York City’s Pride March is considered the biggest pride event in North America. It can attract close to two million LGBTQ people and their allies in what, for many, is a joyous celebration of acceptance and inclusion.

Saturday was the first full day that the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center was open to the public and, not surprisingly, the day before the NYC Pride March, it was packed. It was also the day after the 55th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in 1969, where police raids at the gay bar sparked what became a turning point in the LGBTQ rights movement.

For one couple who moved from Oklahoma to New York, it was an eye-opening experience.

“What struck me when the inn first opened in the 1960s, it was illegal to serve queer people alcohol,” Chimera Comstock, a center visitor, told PIX11 News. “That’s just mind-blowing to me, that’s not that long ago,” he added.

“I am learning all about what happened to the people before me. They ran so I could walk,” Eliza Miles, another visitor to the center, told PIX11 News.

This couple and thousands of others have come for the Pride March, which kicks off Sunday at 25th Street and 5th Avenue.

The march will pass the Stonewall National Monument on Christopher Street before turning north on 7th Avenue and passing the NYC AIDS Memorial Park.

Earlier in Times Square, there was the Big Broadway Disco for Pride weekend in New York City. For both performers and those in the audience, this was a poignant event.

“I’m a New Yorker and I grew up on disco,” Mike Borowski, the DJ for the disco, told PIX11 News. “To be here in Times Square, this is a sweet, sweet, joyous Pride gig,” he added.