This page has photos of the 2012 Salute to Israel Parade
and further down the page are the articles and photos from the 1999-2000 era
when CBST marched under no "Gay visability" restrictions; and articles about when
CBST was denied access to the Parade in 1992.
Shows overall banner for all of the groups.
Shows the new CBST Banner, that includes LGBTQ on it.
The former restriction in 1999-2000 was that no LGBT references or logos or symbols or flags could be shown.
Under the blue Tshirt with a rainbow flag and Jewish Star,
I wore my old T shirt that showed the 1992 New York Post "Oy Gay" front page when we were denied access to the Parade.
CBST Photos from the 1999 & 2000
Salute to Israel Parade.
Scroll all the way down for the articles about when CBST was denied access to the Parade.
1999
Nancy, Yo, Rick, Avi carrying the CBST Banner
Nancy, Yo, and Rick
The congregation at East 61st Street cheering the marchers on!
The congregation at East 61st Street cheering the marchers on!
The Manhattan contingent before we stepped off on to Fifth Avenue!
The "Manhattan" Banner
After seven years of standing on the sidewalk protesting our exclusion, CBST was finally invited to march up Fifth Avenue in the Salute to Israel Parade carrying our own banner. In addition to showing the support of the Jewish lesbian and gay bisexual and transgender community for Israel, we allowed them to fulfil one of the 1999 parade slogans of "We are all One people". It is a very large change from 1993 when the New York Post ran the front page as follows:
Earlier this year, the Parade Committee was contacted and asked the simple question of how could CBST participate in this year's parade? The compromise came with the creation of a Manhattan Cluster of Synagogues (who have after school programs). (The issue being that this parade was a youth parade for the past 35 years). Each synagogue would have its own banner, marching behind a Manhattan banner, followed by the youth associated with that synagogue. The theme was from A Chorus Line…"Manhattan Synagogues - We are One Singular Sensation!"
The Parade Committee stretched the rule that each school must have a minimum of 75 students into a policy that collectively all synagogues together will meet the minimum with no specific minimum on each synagogue. This was also a way for other Manhattan synagogues to march. It was pleasing to hear how many other synagogues first asked if CBST was included before they would join in to the parade.
The day was full of well wishers. A CBST contingent stood at East 61st Street with the rainbow flag and our banners, while Yolanda, her nephew (our youth), Nancy and I carried the banner. Only one person at the sidelines gave us an unpleasant gesture, while you could see the surprised reaction of most as CBST marched by. Now comes the hard part. We have 12 months to try to increase our participation, so why not plan on joining us next May. Who knows… maybe all the Manhattan synagogues can have our own float.
After seven years of standing on the sidewalk protesting our exclusion, CBST was finally invited to march up Fifth Avenue in the Salute to Israel Parade carrying our own banner. In addition, we were given the blockfront of East 61st Street to have our members cheer on the parade. With the rainbow flags and signs flying, we made a presence in two places. First as we marched along the street (only one person made a homophobic gesture towards us) and at East 61st Street where the marchers could see our presence.
The same compromise to the rules that made us able to march also helped several other synagogues in Manhattan, who wouldn't march in the past few years unless we marched. So we all marched together as one contingent of Manhattan synagogues, with each carrying its own banner.
Now on to next year... Wouldn't it be great if we could either have a Manhattan Cluster float with all synagogues fully participating? Hopefully, the spirit of inclusion will continue to grow so that more of New York's Jewish community can feel part of the parade. Who knows?... one day we may be able to proudly march under our banner with the magic words of Lesbian and Gay and be an integral part of our community. Bigger miracles have happened.
2000
Our "20-something" Marchers for the 2000 Parade.
The CBST congrgants with waving rainbow banners and the Lesbian and Gay Synagogue Banner.
The plaque given to CBST for participating.
A picture of Rick Landman waving the rainbow banner.
The following is an example of the type of media coverage which we received when we were first excluded from the Parade in 1993.
