Witness To History

My dear friend (and LC reader) Ray and his friend Carlos were at The Stonewall Inn last night as the New York Senate passed marriage equality.  Here are his pictures and his beautifully written report.  You might want to grab a tissue before you read it:

"I got a call from my friend Carlos to come down to the village and have dinner with him last evening and as decided last minute to do so. After having a nice dinner and discussion about the impending state senate passage of the marriage equality act, we of course were anxious to know as it was about to happen any moment.



After dinner we walked over to Sheridan Square and Christopher Street and low and behold as we walked over at 10:31 my phone flashed with the NY Times news alert that the state senate had passed the measure and it was now going to be law!! The streets erupted and we made our way to the Stonewall Inn where it all began some 42 years ago, the beginning of the gay rights movement and the struggle for equality, Christopher Street had been cordoned off and the thousands were flocking and cheering and celebrating what it truly an hard fought and historic moment.

As we made our way through the crowd I had such emotions. Seeing all the different types...young, old, black, white, latino, asian, indian, phillipino, tall, thin, heavy....gosh what diversity our community has and there in lies our strength!! I felt such pride in our coming together to celebrate this moment and I too had some emotion (and a few tears) as I remembered all those friends who were NOT here to celebrate in this moment....Willy, Stan, Gray, David, Reid, Lloyd, Thomas, Web, Kevin....too many and yet I said, "you are here, in my heart and in my memory and I share this moment with you! You may be gone but not forgotten!"

A very incredible moment and crowd and energy....I'm so GLAD I got a chance to witness, to be alive and to experience a part of this!! (thank you! Carlos!!)"