We Are (Still) Everywhere: 2025 NYC Pride March
Impressions and images from the march that started it all ... as we teeter on the edge of losing some of it
June 29, 2025
Today, I spent Pride briefly embedded with Zohran Mamdani and Tish Adams at the 2025 NYC Pride March.
I cover the march every year and take countless photos — which I share here with you — but the most exciting part, other than seeing queer people of every shape and size and age and inclination, is making sure I photograph as many of the name attendees as I can.
Well before the march’s noon kickoff, I spotted Mamdani and Adams swarmed by media. Joined by Brad Lander, with whom Mamdani had strategically cross-endorsed, they were the belles of this ball.
After some remarks, they began making their way down Fifth around 11:15 a.m. Progress was excruciatingly slow, thanks to photographers like me, but I like to think we moved as much as we should have to help things along.
Mamdani is very cute in person, and his famous scrunched-nose smiles and hand-to-heart (“thank you”) gesture are already larger-than-life.
Mamdani is a dynamo. He criss-crossed the route, shaking hands with apoplectic supporters, doing quite a few selfies, bouncing to the beat a couple times and even doing a smidgen of “Hung Up” choreo. I swear!
As always, I’m astonished how close I get to people like him. I was right beside him many times, and never more than 15 feet away in any direction.
Tish is my woman. I was able to gesture to her and Mamdani and say, “Looks like a winning team to me.” She high-fived me.
It was all very exciting, and I also got to tell Lander, “Any job you want next — at all,” for which he kindly thanked me.
Unfortunately, as is always the case with marquee politicos, he only marched part of the way, peeling off at 14th St., where he still took a few moments to shake a couple of last hands.
I don’t recall Cuomo or Adams ever being so accessible, and the time I saw Bloomberg, he was not even on the parade route.
Backtracking a bit:
Before the march proper, media assembled at Maison 10 (4 W. 29th St.), a cool boutique (I went there before), where we heard from Pride brass, as well as the year’s marshals:
√ Karine Jean-Pierre: President Biden’s lesbian press secretary, the one who recently up and left the Democratic Party and is marketing a book. She didn’t say anything about her book or the Democrats, and was very cheery about LGBTQ+ rights, both in her remarks and on the route.
√ Marti Gould Cummings: First non-binary public office candidate in NYC history and popular — and very political — drag artist.
√ Trans formative Schools: An org whose mission is to help trans youth in public schools.
√ Elisa Crespo: First trans woman of color to run for office in the Bronx, founder of NEW Pride Agenda.
√ Lina Bradford: Fabulous DJ Lina works with SAGE and GLAAD.
After that, I had time to kill, but used it roaming the load-in areas in search of interesting faces.
I bumped into Niecy Nash Betts and her wife Jessica Betts, and was able to persuade them to pose for some pictures prior to stepping off. Jessica was beyond nice, and Niecy was, too, just distracted and worried her mic pack would show. She expertly covered everything. Well, not everything! If she weren’t such a killer dramatic actor, I’d say she could be our new Mae West — head-to-toe unapologetic glamour.
I was starstruck, but hiding it.
Eventually, I made my way to the kickoff and caught Mamdani, but once he left, I had to march back upstream and focus on everyday marchers. And at the NYC Pride March, very few of them are “everyday.”
I find it exhilarating seeing people who are so comfortable with themselves in a way I’m not, and as always, it’s so important, I feel, to meet or at least see queer people who aren’t in your exact demo. Yes, there are white guys (and some shirtless heartbreakers), but there are so many people I rarely interact with — young people of color who are having a blast, very elderly people who paved the way for it all, disabled people, people of various faiths. You name it, they’ve got it. And that always makes me feel more uplifted than I think I’ll feel.
There’s strength in numbers, and believe me, some of these numbers have strength!
Ultimately, I would say this was the year of “protect the dolls”/“support trans kids.” And the LGBs out there need to hear that. We’ll go nowhere if we allow ourselves to be pitted against each other.
Enjoy the photo diary.
My next published post is due to be a long Q&A with … Darryl Stephens. ⚡️
