Transgender Firefighter Marches as Grand Marshall in NYC Pride Parade

Transgender Firefighter Marches as Grand Marshall in NYC Pride Parade

Brooke Guinan’s family has a history of careers in fire fighting. Guinan did not think she could continue the tradition in the male-dominated fire department because she identifies as a transgender woman. But Guinan’s love of public service ultimately drove her to continue her family legacy in the fire department.

Guinan began identifying as a transgender woman in 2011, three years into her firefighting career at FDNY. She first came out as a gay man at a young age, but began to question her gender identity in college.

Since 2015, Guinan has served the FDNY as its LGBTQ outreach coordinator. In this role she has directed and produced training tools and services to better equip the FDNY to understand and work with the LGBTQ community. “The firehouse can be fun, but I am so enamored with my community and I am very pleased and grateful to do a different kind of lifesaving work in the fire department,” Guinan said. James Fallarino, spokesperson for NYC Pride, said Guinan appears to be the first openly transgender member of the FDNY.

This year the NYC Pride Parade invited Guinan as a Grand Marshall. “It is an amazing honor to be the Grand Marshal of this year’s Pride parade,” she said. “I have always found inspiration in other people’s voices and it is an honor to be given an opportunity for my voice to be heard.”

The NYC Pride March is the largest pride parade in the United States and is meant to celebrate the LGBTQ community and bring awareness to issues the community faces.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/25/us/firefighter-transgender-woman-pride/index.html

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Chelsea Manning Marches at NYC Pride

Chelsea Manning Marches at NYC Pride

Released earlier this year from prison, trasgender activist Chelsea Manning, took part in her first LGBTQ pride parade in New York City on June 25.

Manning is the former U.S. Army soldier convicted by court-martial in 2013 for violating the Espionage Act after leaking the largest-ever number of classified documents to WikiLeaks. Prior to leaving office, President Barack Obama commuted Manning’s sentence and she was released from prison in May.

Manning marched with the American Civil Liberties Union along with Gavin Grimm. Grimm is the transgender teenager whose lawsuit over a school bathroom was remanded by the Supreme Court.

Manning tweeted about the Pride event: “honored to represent the @ACLU at this years @NYCPrideMarch lost my voice from screaming so much thank you”

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“There’s hope.”

Michael Richman and John Rabbia met three years ago at NYC Pride when they joined a group of flag dancers named, “The Flaggots.”  After dating long-distance, finally they found themselves in the same city so John decided to propose. For the perfect proposal he received help from the whole Flaggots team. During their routine at NYC Pride in June, John emerged out of an abundance of LGBT flags, got down on one knee and proposed to Michael.

The video has gone viral so quickly that some relatives are finding out about the engagement via social media. John explained to BuzzFeed that the video is very uplifting especially after the recent tragedy in Orlando. “The Orlando tragedy was so heartbreaking and everyone in the community was so upset and devastated,” he said. “It’s nice there’s a ray of sunshine at the end. There are new beginnings and our community is resilient. Maybe it gives people something to latch onto.”
“There is hope,” he said.

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