Court Wins Draw Crowds to Gay Pride Parades

 

Share

0

The parade in New York City, where the first pride march was held 44 years ago to mark the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Inn riots that kicked off the modern gay rights movement, also was a sort of victory lap for Edith Windsor, the 84-year-old widow who challenged the federal Defense of Marriage Act after she was forced to pay $363,053 on the estate of her late wife.

Windsor, who was picked as a grand marshal of New York's parade months before she won her case before the Supreme Court last week, walked up Fifth Avenue during the event and recalled watching it on television in past years with her wife, Thea Spyer, before Spyer died in 2009.

"I love it obviously," she said. "If someone had told me 50 years ago that I would be the marshal of New York City gay pride parade in 2013 at the age of 84, I never would have believed it."

In Seattle, the two women who were the first same-sex couple to be granted a marriage license in Washington state after same-sex marriage became legal there last year, Jane Abbot Lighty and Pete-e Petersen, helped raise a giant marriage equality sign featuring a red equal sign on top of the city's iconic Space Needle for the first time.

In another first, the Seattle Mariners flew a rainbow flag — the symbol of gay pride first unfurled during San Francisco's parade in 1978 — during their game Sunday against the Chicago Cubs.

The Supreme Court wins motivated many first-time pride parade spectators, including Michael Pence, 53, and John Moehnke, 46, of North Carolina. The couple, who are engaged and plan to marry in New York in the fall, attended Chicago's annual Pride Parade with a church group, saying they were thrilled about the court decisions and want to see gay marriage extended to Illinois and other states.

"We have such a long way to go but we're ready for the fight," Moehnke said.

Efforts to legalize gay marriage in Illinois have stalled. Advocates started the year with intense momentum and received backing from President Barack Obama and Illinois' top political leaders. The measure cleared the Illinois Senate on Valentine's Day, state Rep. Greg Harris, the bill's sponsor, decided not to call a vote in the House because he didn't have the needed support.

Harris was one of several politicians at the parade Sunday. He said he would bring back the issue in the fall, adding that the Supreme Court's rulings have resonated with his colleagues in the Illinois House.

"Illinois is in a truly second-class status until we pass marriage equality," Harris said.

———

Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen in Chicago, AP Radio Correspondent Julie Walker in New York and AP Photographer Elaine Thompson in Seattle contributed to this story.