Our Fabulous Sea Tea Celebration
Voices cheered and music filled the dance floor as New York City came out to celebrate national marriage equality on MEUSA's annual Sea Tea on the Hudson River. Enjoy our gallery of photos from the event!
PHOTOS taken and curated by Multimedia Director Paul Carey.
TAKE PRIDE! Volunteer At / Participate In a MEUSA Pride 2015 Event!
Over 40 years ago, on 2 November 1969, Craig Rodwell, his partner Fred Sargeant, Ellen Broidy, and Linda Rhodes contemplated the country’s first gay pride parade. They proposed a resolution at the Eastern Regional Conference of Homophile Organizations (ERCHO) meeting in Philadelphia to organize a gay pride parade in New York. Brenda Howard (a.k.a., the "Mother of Pride’) coordinated the first New York march in Greenwich Village on 28 June 1970.
That same weekend, gay activist groups held marches in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago as well. This proud tradition continues to the present day with festivals, marches and related activities taking place annually around the world – often in June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots.
Continuing in this now-annual tradition (in what we hope will the year that ushers in marriage equality nationwide) MEUSA will have a strong presence at Pride events this year in New York (Manhattan) and San Francisco. For more information on those events and how to get involved, see below.
For information on worldwide Pride events in June 2015.
San Francisco CA — June 27 & 28
March with us in the 45th annual historic San Francisco PRIDE Parade - often said to be "one of the last remaining PRIDE events that can truly be called a rite of passage."
Love will be in the air at the Marriage Pavilion at the San Francisco Pride Celebration at Civic Center! Publicly pledge your love, renew your vows, take pictures in front of San Francisco City Hall, and learn about the latest about the US Supreme Court decisions -- when will wedding bells ring? Join Marriage Equality USA and learn how sharing our personal stories can bring us full lived equality in all aspects of our lives.
Sign up here to march with MEUSA in the parade.
For full details on PRIDE Events go to the San Francisco PRIDE site.
New York City, NY — June 28
If you are fortunate enough to be in Manhattan, the birthplace of PRIDE, in June, MEUSA is hosting or participating in several events.
PRIDAY NYC at the Gramercy Theater, June 26, 10:30pm
SIREN NYC Women's PRIDE Dance at the Watermark, June 27, 8:00pm
MEUSA NYC PRIDE Breakfast at Playwright Irish Pub, June 28, 9:00am
MEUSA invites you to attend its 8th Annual at Playwright Irish Pub right in the parade formation zone on W. 35 Street. You can purchase tickets through Friday, June 26 or a limited number of tickets will be available at the door.
Afterwards, MEUSA welcomes you to be a part of its contingent in what we hope will be an historic march celebrating marriage equality throughout all 50 U.S. states and five territories. Sign up here to march with MEUSA in the parade.
Get full details on PRIDE Events at the NYC PRIDE website.
Other MEUSA Pride 2015 events include:
Salt Lake City UT – June 4-7
This year, our MEUSA Salt Lake City Local Organizers Colleen and Jolene Mewing have been honored as announcers for the entire Salt Lake City Pride Parade on Sunday, June 7! Check the Utah Pride Festival for further information.
Castro Valley CA -- July 11
MEUSA’s San Francisco Bay Area logistics volunteer supreme, Billy Bradford, is organizing Castro Valley Pride is FIVE!, a welcoming, inclusive, family-friendly celebration for the LGBTQ community members and allies.
Castro Valley Pride was started five years ago by a group of high school students who believed they should create a space for Castro Valley's LGBTQ community. Click here to register a booth for a group or business. To participate in the day's activities, check out the Facebook event!
The Multifaceted Paul Carey Heads Up MEUSA's Multimedia
"My husband and I have been together for almost 15 years now,” says MEUSA Multimedia Lead Paul Carey. "But it's not been an easy road for us. Juan Carlos is from Mexico and we've experienced the challenges faced by bi-national couples first-hand,” he says, reflecting on how the lack of marriage equality impacted their relationship in its early years. “For our first five years of being together, we lived apart until Juan secured a work visa for the U.S. Now that we're married, our status as a couple in the U.S. is secure."
Like many MEUSA volunteers, Paul’s personal experience propelled him to join the marriage equality cause. As for choosing MEUSA, he says, "I'd been aware of MEUSA for a number of years but it was my friendship with Executive Director Brian Silva that brought me in to the team. I had already been capturing MEUSA events with my own photos when Brian asked me to help manage MEUSA's multimedia archive for its constituents.”
Paul’s MEUSA assignment turned out to be more than he originally anticipated. "It's been a challenging role - pulling together existing photos and videos that the organization had, plus reaching out to past participants to collect as much information as we can. We have a few videos made for MEUSA, plus videos provided by other sources. In our photo collection, we have almost 10,000 photos archived, over 3,000 of which are available to everyone.”
Indeed, his responsibilities cut across multiple facets of MEUSA activities. "It's my role to manage our online video and photographic resources. I have set up YouTube and Flickr accounts for Marriage Equality USA to document where we've been and the activities that we're engaged in. In addition, I curate videos for our audience, providing a guided tour of our events and activities where MEUSA either sponsors or participates. As a photographer, I've been on hand to personally capture many of our events, including our National Gala, Gay Pride events and, most recently, showing our support for Marriage Equality at the recent Supreme Court oral arguments. For the past couple of years, I've created videos for our Galas and Awards events utilizing content provided by MEUSA volunteers across the country.”
Paul considers his recent Supreme Court coverage to be one of his most important MEUSA assignments. "I was the official MEUSA photographer for the recent Unite for Marriage events during the oral arguments on marriage at SCOTUS (photo set for 2015-04-28). It was an exciting time to be in D.C., and to be a part of the Unite for Marriage rally on the steps of the Supreme Court. We spent the morning showing our support with other marriage equality organizations and met with a number of people that are directly affected by the decision. The joy of each person's story was great to hear.”
Hearing personal stories is among the rewards Paul says volunteering at MEUSA has brought him. "Working directly with the leadership team at MEUSA has given me broader insight into the organization and into the marriage equality movement. I've been able to meet a number of people from around the country and hear a wide variety of stories. The most compelling thing I've learned is the diversity of the families that we are working to protect. We have families across the country that need our support and encouragement.”
PHOTO CREDITS
The first three photos were provided by Paul Carey from his personal collection.
First photo: Husbands Juan Carlos Fernandez and Paul Carey in Brooklyn.
Second photo: Juan Carlos, Brian Silva and Paul at the 2014 Annual NYC MEUSA Gala.
Third photo: Paul in San Francisco.
Fourth photo: Photo of young marriage equality supporter taken by Paul Carey on 28 April 2015 in Washington DC, at the Unite for Marriage rally during the SCOTUS marriage hearing.
Angela Daniels - New York, NY
Angela is corporate vice president in New York Life’s Cultural Markets Department, where she focuses on recruiting activities and the development of unique programs and materials to target the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community (LGBT) and Women’s markets. Daniels is responsible for the development of the company’s LGBT Market, which began in 2008 with programs in Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston, and is now nationwide. She holds a B.A. in marketing degree from North Carolina Central University.
Angela is on the Corporate Board of Advisors for the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, and has been a panel speaker at events such as the 12th Annual “Rainbow Push” Wall Street Project Economic Summit, Start Over Smart Divorce Expo, and Speaking of Women’s Health Conferences. In 2011, she was listed as one of the “100 Women We Love” in GO magazine and featured in the NGLCC_NY (National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce) Newsletter.
Angela says that she is living her professional passion, which is helping to build an inclusive and viable market in financial services. Her vision is to “touch, move, and inspire those I come in contact with to experience themselves and their business in a positively unique way.”