Scene Magazine » LGBT

Queens of the Pines

Benjamin-Émile Le Hay — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:19:31 -0400

They came in all shapes and sizes yesterday, but each one was a queen. This year's installment of the annual Invasion of the Pines on Fire Island saw hundreds of amateur and professional drag queens wreak havoc on the tiny Long Island beach community. Fueled by booze, the boisterous queens gathered at the Ice Palace pool and deck in Cherry Grove to pose and prep before crowding on a water taxi to the Pines. There, each drag queen was announced by name as they sashayed down a red carpet in front of hundreds of Independence Day revelers. The Observer was on hand to document the peacock parade. Here are the most outrageous outfits we witnessed.

(All photos by Billy Morrissette.)

To Do Saturday: Fifty Shades of Gay

Daniel D'Addario — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 09:00:58 -0400

It’s Pride Week! And though there’s less cause for celebration this year than last—as you may recall, the passage of gay marriage in New York state fell fortuitously right before the state’s LGBT community was to celebrate itself—New York’s festivities tend to put other cities’ to shame. Today, the party promoter Josh Wood is throwing The Day Party, an all-day outdoor dance party suspended above the Hudson. Guests who opt for the "VIP" package get a cruise around the Statue of Liberty, a symbol that likely has a special meaning for this group (leaving aside her very last-season diaphanous green robes). The party goes until 10:30—though surely there’ll be at least a few afterparties!

Pier 83, 42nd Street and West Side Highway, 3pm; tickets and information can be found at http://www.showclix.com/event/THEDAYPARTY.

Whoopi Goldberg and Raven-Symoné Join Christine Quinn at City Council Pride Celebration

Luke Hammerman — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 18:10:13 -0400

Whoopi Goldberg at the City Council Pride celebration at the Cooper Union.

After a performance by Raven-Symoné, Kimberly Marabel and Aléna Watters of a song from the Broadway musical Sister Act, comedian, actress and entertainer Whoopi Goldberg stepped up to the podium last night at Cooper Union’s Great Hall to emcee the annual City Council Pride celebration.

Ms. Goldberg remarked how she still found it hard to believe that Ms. Symoné was actually grown up, no longer the child star from the Disney Channel. Ms. Goldberg kept the crowd laughing, making jabs at her age (she stated how Susan B. Anthony had spoken in the Great Hall, and how she had been her date) and taking political swipes. She made a disgusted face as she mentioned New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and declared, “Chris, you won’t be there much longer.”

Ms. Goldberg handed the microphone over to Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who, recently married herself, emphasized that this year's Pride Week was special as it marked the first since New York passed the Marriage Equality Act.

Ms. Quinn handed out proclamations to those who have fought for equality and made the LGBT community safer in New York, including the first public proclamation of the NYPD’s revision of its Patrol Guide to treat transgender people equally. This includes the right for a detained person to be searched by officers of the gender with which one identifies.

Also receiving a proclamation but unable to attend the event, director Dee Rees, whose film Pariah centers on a young women’s struggle to accept her sexuality, joined via a pre-recorded acceptance speech.

The third set of honorees were Hermes Mallea and Carey Maloney, co-chairs of the LGBT initiative at the New York Public Library. They announced the launch of a book drive to provide LGBT young adult novels to New York’s public schools that, as Speaker Quinn noted, would help many youth find refuge in a library.