'Pride 2025 - Rise Up: Pride in Protest' spotlights LGBTQ+ leaders, advocates making a difference
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Join Eyewitness News' Sam Champion, Lauren Glassberg and Kemberly Richardson for our annual WABC-TV special, "Pride 2025 - Rise Up: Pride in Protest.
The half-hour special is filled with inspirational profiles of LGBTQ+ leaders and advocates working to make a difference in their communities and beyond.
The special features a sit-down interview by Sam Champion with former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, where she talks about her new book, growing up queer in NYC, and the rollback of LGBTQ+ rights. She also discusses her role as this year's NYC Pride March Grand Marshal.
We look back at the historic Continental Baths in the basement of the Ansonia Hotel on the Upper West Side. The baths became a safe space to meet pre-Stonewall days in New York, and became a cultural hotspot where entertainers like Bette Midler and Barry Manilow got their start. Grammy Award winner and music legend Melissa Manchester talks about her start as a backup singer for Bette Midler at the Continental Baths, and what it meant to her career.
Our special includes a look at a photographer whose groundbreaking work captured crucial moments in the history of LGBTQ+ civil rights, including the Stonewall uprising in 1969. Fred McDarrah was a photographer at The Village Voice for years, and his photos on the vibrancy and culture of Greenwich Village during the latter half of the 20th century feature a riveting look at history.
The show also examines advertising dating back to the early 1900s that carried homoerotic marketing messages, whether intentional or not. The story details how gay designers and illustrators sometimes slipped in coded imagery or text in their work - that went over the heads of the general public.
And the special features a choreographer originally from Iraq, who embraces his culture as a queer Arab artist. Fadi Khoury grew up in Baghdad and survived four wars before seeking refuge in the US. Now he turns to dance to speak louder than ever on his identity as refugee, a citizen, and a gay man unafraid to be seen.
The special is a powerful look at issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community.
ABC 7 New York is your home for the NYC Pride March on Sunday, June 29. You can watch the broadcast from noon until 3 p.m. on Channel 7 and anywhere you stream ABC7NY.
Discover more Pride coverage at abc7ny.com/pride
ALSO WATCH | Watch 'Pride 2024: Champions for Change'
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