{"id":282577,"date":"2026-06-30T18:29:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/282577\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T18:29:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T18:29:29","slug":"masks-heels-and-love-drag-march-lights-up-lower-manhattan-during-pride-weekend-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/282577\/","title":{"rendered":"Masks, heels, and love: Drag March lights up Lower Manhattan during Pride Weekend celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women dressed as men, men dressed as women, women dressed as different women, men in masks and trans and straights and gay and who knows who\u2019s who, and who cares? It really doesn\u2019t matter; it\u2019s the Drag March<\/a> \u2014 one of the most joyful events of Pride Month<\/a> (or, for that matter, of the year).<\/p>\n

An explosion of creativity, self-expression, joy, and pride, the Drag March, held this year on June 26, has \u201cgotten much bigger exponentially\u201d since its inception, notes Hucklefaery, the event\u2019s organizer since 1998. He went to his first March in 1997, a few years after Gilbert Baker \u2014 the creator of the rainbow flag \u2014 founded the event.<\/p>\n

Although its name has a fairly specific definition, the Drag March has come to include many forms of individualization and, let\u2019s be honest, a fair amount of showing off. Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that! It just adds to the fabulousness.<\/p>\n

The expansiveness of the March works for Hucklefaery, who opines that, \u201cthe more inclusive we can be, the better. I feel like the circle is strengthened by diversity, as all ecosystems are, which we know from science. So I think the more diverse and inclusive we can become without losing our queer roots is important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants gather every year at the northwest corner of Tompkins Square Park an hour before the march\u2019s start, giving the plethora of photographers a scant 60 minutes to capture what they can before the group steps off on their way across town to the Stonewall National Monument.<\/p>\n

Hucklefaery is quick to mention the tremendous efforts of the \u201cvolunteers who show up every year. We had over 40 marshals, and it just takes a village to make this happen for sure. Well, two villages \u2013 East and West!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve also aspired to make it more accessible by offering wheelchairs, ASL interpretation, and we also include pedicabs for our elders,\u201d Hucklefaery adds.\n<\/p>\n

How does Hucklefaery feel, we wondered, as he led almost a thousand people across town?\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very proud to be a part of the community,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel honored to be trusted with the circle of the Drag March for almost 30 years now. I have aspired to remove my ego from the situation and really focus on serving the circle, the larger circle of the Drag March. So once we get to that and I look back and I see all those people, I am filled with pride \u2013 not for anything that I particularly did, but pride for my community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Hucklefaery Ken , aka. Sister Lotti Da of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, has organized the march since 1998Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Hucklefaery Ken at the center of it allPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Love is love is love\u2026.Brent Ray Fraser making a pointPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Mr Noem, I presume ?Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"That\u2019s Misstress Softee to youPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Dusty Childers (far left) and the \u201cCock \u2018Em Sock \u2018Em Hobots\u201d . Red vs. Blue, anyone ?Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"When the sun sets on the moon\u2026\u2026\u2026.Mike Sullivan wearing his handmade creationPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"The man with the mic was making public his feelings about Jesus while the man with the sign made his feelings known about the man with the micPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Photo by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women dressed as men, men dressed as women, women dressed as different women, men in masks and trans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[54266,78583,107936,108325,14,108326,108327,18263,75,84,83,9,24,79468,63,75138,108328,37182,108329,55646,85821],"class_list":["post-282577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-community-celebration","tag-drag-culture","tag-drag-march","tag-gilbert-baker","tag-inclusivity","tag-lgbtq-activism","tag-lgbtq-events","tag-lgbtq-history","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-pride","tag-nyc","tag-pride-month-nyc","tag-pride-parade-alternative","tag-queer-community","tag-self-expression","tag-stonewall-national-monument","tag-tompkins-square-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}