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Weather: Calm wind and a high in the mid-80s. There is a small chance of rain tonight.
Alternate-side parking: In effect until July 4.
New York City’s celebration of Pride Month crescendos this week, just in time for the 50th anniversary on Friday of the uprising at the Stonewall Inn, a pivotal movement for the modern gay rights movement.
The milestone has brought with it the WorldPride festival, a global event that organizers expect to bring millions of people to the city in June.
WorldPride’s opening ceremony is Wednesday, and its closing events are Sunday.
[Learn more about WorldPride, L.G.B.T.Q. news and history.]
Here is a guide to some of The Times’s coverage:
The Pride March: Staring at noon on Sunday, a two-mile march with thumping music, costumed dancers, politicians and floats will commence in Manhattan. It starts on Fifth Avenue by 26th Street, goes in front of the Stonewall Inn, turns north onto Seventh Avenue and ends by 23rd Street.
A competing procession, the Queer Liberation March and Rally, is being staged in the borough by people who say the other procession is too corporate and no longer speaks to the urgent needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
[There are rival pride parades; one does not have corporate sponsors.]
Take a guided walking tour: The Times’s Pierre-Antoine Louis, a lifelong New Yorker, narrates this tour. It includes the poet Langston Hughes’s home, the Leslie-Lohman Museum for Gay and Lesbian Art, and the first home for homeless transgender youth, on East Second Street.
[The tour of 11 landmarks in Gay New York.]
How to survive Pride in New York: Plan ahead when it comes to transportation. If the subways are packed, try the PATH train, which can take you from Christopher Street to 33rd Street in Manhattan. If the main events are too crowded for your liking, consider a breezy ferry ride to Staten Island to the Alice Austen House.
You’ll also notice there are a dearth of clean public restrooms in the city. Try the ones at Bryant Park. The restrooms at Starbucks are also widely available.
[Tips on how to get around New York.]
Before Stonewall: In 1959, there was an uprising at Cooper Donuts in Los Angeles, where the crowd “pelted the officers with coffee, doughnuts, trash and utensils.” In 1961, the trial of Maxine Doyle Perkins began to chip away at North Carolina’s anti-gay laws. Gay protesters in 1966 held a “sip-in” at a Greenwich Village bar that refused to serve gay customers
[Learn about some of the early milestones.]
Pride Prom: This month in Bushwick, the dating app Hinge hosted a prom. The event was a chance to relive a possibly painful moment of self-suppression, said Hinge’s founder and chief executive, Justin McLeod. So “we felt it would be cool to create a prom where everyone feels welcome and can show up and be totally themselves,” he added.
Voices: Barbara Smith, a black feminist, participated in the first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979. Forty years later, she described her disillusionment. There are “appalling levels of violence” suffered by transgender people and it is “exacerbated by poverty and racism,” she wrote, adding, “Marriage equality and celebrity culture will not solve it.”
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Mr. Louis, of The Times, collected comments from our readers about what Pride means to them and what should come next. “Many lamented what they see as the encroachment of corporations into Pride events,” he said. “And others talked about the need for solidarity in the face of continuing battles.”
From The Times
And finally: From the archives
The Times’s Adriana Balsamo writes:
“Youngsters cool off by riding the Water Flume at Astroland, Coney Island,” read the caption that was published with this photo, taken by our photographer Barton Silverman, in June 1976. Pictured, from front to back, are Fatman Ekinci, 5; her brothers, Kris, 7, and Fevzi, 9; and in the background, Lillian Pacheco, 7.
Astroland was first mentioned by The Times on Sept. 13, 1962, when the paper called it “the first major project for frivolous purposes in Coney Island in 25 years.” But in September 2008 the park closed; its owner said the landlord refused to discuss the expiring lease.
“This place lets kids trust their legs, they don’t have to worry about cars, and neighborhoods are getting so rough,” Walter McCoy, a resident of East New York, told The Times. “They’re closing down a legend.”
And Keyira Serrano told the paper that she spent every summer weekend at Astroland. On Astroland’s final day, she said, “we’re going to have all the fun we can, while it lasts.”
See more old photos at our archival storytelling project, Past Tense, and on Instagram: @nytarchives.
It’s Monday — enjoy the ride.
Metropolitan Diary: A fortunate event
Dear Diary:
I was coming back from a book-signing at the New York Public Library and I was sitting on a bench in the subway station while waiting for the train. I was carrying a signed copy of “The Bad Beginning,” by Lemony Snicket.
A young girl sitting next to me asked me about the book. I explained what the “Series of Unfortunate Events” was. Her brother told her not to bother strangers, but I didn’t mind the questions. The girl reminded me of my younger sister, who was 800 miles away in Chicago.
The train came and the girl took a seat next to me, her brother trailing behind. She kept asking questions about the book and the series, and we had a very pleasant conversation.
As we approached my stop, I did something I hadn’t anticipated. I gave her the book. Just before getting off the train, I handed it to her and said to take good care of it.
She looked stunned. Her brother looked grateful.
— Siri Chilukuri
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