Competing Events Mark LGBTQ+ Pride Day in New York

NEW YORK - For the second consecutive year, the lingering pandemic consigned New York's annual Pride march Sunday to the virtual world, even as its alter-ego, the Queer Liberation March, took its edgier message through the streets of Manhattan.

The NYC Pride march, the city's marquee LGBTQ+ event now in its 51st year, became a made-for-TV production as a cautionary measure to prevent coronavirus infections, which have dropped sharply as the number of vaccinated people has grown. Only a small number of guests were invited to the three-block area where the group's floats and musical acts paraded for the cameras, but organizer Sue Doster said "something in the millions" of viewers were expected to tune in. Guests included Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the June 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, who has since become an advocate for LGBTQ rights legislation.