PRIDEfest Cancelled

[Heritage of Pride,] the organization behind many of the annual summer Gay Pride events, issued a press release late on Friday announcing that they have been "forced to cancel PRIDEfest 2007." The street festival was scheduled for June 23 and has most recently been held in the West Village. The organization was seeking to move it to the heart of Chelsea, 8th Avenue between West 14th to 23rd streets, after their permit was denied, they decided to face down the city and give them the May 11 deadline to reconsider the permit request. When there was no change, they decided to cancel, although they are "filing an appeal for symbolic purposes."

As was reported in the [New York Blade] last week, "Participants at the May 8 emergency meeting worried that another organization would begin its own Sunday festival and questioned whether the permit denial was motivated by homophobia—something HOP board members said they were considering. Mannino said the American Civil Liberties Union has indicated it may be interested in pursuing a lawsuit against the city on behalf of HOP."

Those sound like fighting words. Looks like all those queer tourists will have to look elsewhere for rainbow kitty key chains or baseball caps for gay dads.

Photo courtesy of [Perge Modo].