NYC Pride Parade revelers sound off on controversial Drag March chant: ‘Just adding fuel to the fire’
Revelers at New York City’s Pride Parade on Sunday sounded off on a controversial chant by LGBTQ activists — with some saying the shouts of “We’re here! We’re queer! We’re coming for your children!” could spark more anti-gay hate.
The chant — yelled Friday at the annual Drag March in the East Village — was seen as a misguided joke by some parade attendees, who wondered whether it hurt the cause more than it helped.
“I don’t think it was the right group or the right time to make a joke (about that),” said Angela Ghiozzo, a mom from Cold Spring, NY, who went to the parade with her son, Matthew Pocarillo, who came out 12 years ago.
“They’re in danger every day,” Ghiozzo told The Post, referencing recent attacks on drag shows and the gay community as a whole. “They’re bullied, they’re harassed, they’re beaten, they’re killed. And that’s not the right time to make a joke. I don’t know what the purpose was, I don’t know what their mindset was. But it’s just adding fuel to the fire.”
But others were more cavalier, and dismissed the chant as a harmless jab at anti-gay activists who falsely accuse those in the LGBTQ community of being pedophiles and child “groomers.”
“It’s all in good fun,” said Kelly Autorina, a longtime parade veteran who called herself a “huge supporter” of drag. “If you’re taking it like that, then that’s a you problem. Not an us problem.”
Still, neither the controversy nor the humid, rainy weather could put a damper on the NYC Pride March’s spectacle.
Nearly 2 million rainbow-bedecked revelers of all ages flooded Manhattan streets, cheering as the thousands-strong procession of folks and floats marched by in the largest celebration of its kind in North America.
Local politicians such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams also participated in the march, which is now in its 53rd year and commemorates the June 1969 riots at Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn that sparked the movement for LGBTQ rights.
Sidewalk vendors hawked rainbow flags and rainbow afros, while West Village businesses dangled rainbow necklaces in their windows to show support.
The smell of marijuana and sweat hung thick in the muggy air as rainbow-laden dogs dressed in Pride shirts and colorful flowers on their ears bounded down the street.
Music was everywhere, and excited revelers even cheered for the New York Public Library reps who yelled to the crowd that “anyone can read.”
Several spectators told The Post that even if they didn’t agree with Friday’s chant, it wasn’t their place to condemn it.
“I’m not gonna tell drag queens how to behave,” said Alan Amtzis, a 68-year-old New Jersey man who wore a beaded headdress and a pink shirt that said, “Bronx Queen.”
“Do I think it was a funny joke? Maybe not. But I’m not offended by it,” Amtzis said. “I think it was not a smart choice, because the people who are from the conservative right, they’re just going to use any opportunity to besmirch. If you wanna go by statistics, most pedophiles are not drag queens.”
The chant had incensed conservatives, who condemned the marchers as video of them taken in Tompkins Square Park spread on social media over the weekend.
“This movement grooms minors to have mastectomies and castration and fuels a multi billion dollar medical child abuse industry,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted in response to a clip.
Jenna Ellis, an attorney who was briefly part of former President Donald Trump’s legal team, joined the pile-on.
“Remember that thing they said they totally are not doing?” Ellis tweeted.
The online outrage will have real-world consequences, said May Blimline, an 18-year-old from the Keystone State.
“I live in Pennsylvania, where [homophobia] is a lot more common,” Blimline said Sunday. “So I personally don’t appreciate it, because it makes my life a lot harder and people a lot more judgmental of me.”
Still, being able to laugh at the “absurdity” is important, said Jimmie O’Brien, a 66-year-old gay man from NYC.
“I think humor is the truth that breaks everything,” O’Brien told The Post. “When humor comes out, that’s where inspiration comes from. When it doesn’t come out, it’s repressed. And then it comes out as anger.”
