June capped off an exciting and event-packed LGBTQ Pride Month for Harlem United. Staff were on-hand at Harlem Pride, Brooklyn Pride, Queens Pride, and New York City Pride to provide rapid HIV testing to Pride-goers and to distribute information and resources for safer sex and HIV/STI prevention.
The Harlem United family came out in full force as staff, clients, and supporters joined together to celebrate LGBTQ pride in the historic New York City Pride March down Fifth Avenue, along Christopher Street, and right past the Stonewall Inn, where the riots in 1969 inspired the first-ever Pride March. Check out this short video to see the celebration yourself — the pride on the client’s faces is a joyful reminder of why we do this work.
After the march, Jacqui Kilmer, our COO, and Kimberleigh Smith, our VP of Policy & Advocacy, were off to Washington, D.C. to join President Barack Obama at an LGBT Pride Reception at the White House! At the reception, the president urged the community to keep fighting for an AIDS-free generation and to extend our energy, passion and resources toward other injustices that exist. He also announced plans to prepare an executive order extending employment protections to transgender and gender non-conforming federal employees.
It may be summer, but we’re working hard as ever to provide hope, health, and healing to Harlem & beyond.
