A City With Two Tales: Hate and Love

by David Mixner

If New York City had two baseball teams playing against each other this past weekend the score would have been "Team Love" 45,000 and "Team Hate" 2500! That is the saga that played out in the Big Apple. In one borough there was a rally against marriage equality that turned out to be a circus of hate with vicious and ugly anti-LGBT rhetoric going far beyond the issue of marriage equality. In another borough there was a love fest of people making a sacrifice of time, money and energy to help those with HIV/AIDS.

Love overwhelmingly won this weekend.

In Manhattan over 45,000 people walked, raised money and sang for people with HIV/AIDS. The Gay's Men's Health Crisis held their annual Walk and raised over six million dollars. People were filled with joy, determination and love. There were no angry or ugly words spoken from the stage. No one attempted to divide the city or degrade any of its citizens. GMHC's HIV/AIDS Walk is how enlightened New Yorkers look at their city.

In the Bronx, Democratic State Senator Ruben Diaz led his second massive march against the passage of marriage equality in New York State. His first drew over 20,000 citizens but this time around the highest estimate of attendance was a pitiful 2,500. The State senator blamed the rain but just so you know, senator, it was also raining in Manhattan on the 45,000! He filled the stage with a coalition of hate and division including one Pastor who advocated death for homosexuals.

For all those politicians in Albany who are afraid of Diaz and his minions, I would suggest they simply look toward New York City this past weekend and that will tell you all you need to know. Check out these photographs from GMHC's AIDS Walk. (photos by Adam Fredericks)

This article originally was published on DavidMixner.com, May 18, 2011.

 http://www.davidmixner.com/2011/05/a-city-with-two-tales-hate-and-love.html