Hello, Friends!
With just eight days left, I wanted to update you on our plans for New York City’s Great Nationwide Kiss-In!
When I thought back to the idea of the Kiss-In, I remembered that this was created to be a celebration and an affirmation of everyone’s right to share a kiss with their loved-one, and I realized that Times Square just wasn’t the best venue for us.
After doing a great deal of thinking, and after working with the New York City Department of Parks – who have been very helpful and supportive, we decided to move The Great Nationwide Kiss-In to beautiful and historic Battery Park.
If you take a look at our updated page on Facebook, you’ll see that Battery Park is perfect. First, it’s home to the seeds of freedom George Washington and other founders of America planted. Washington himself was inaugurated just blocks away from Battery Park, and our Bill of Rights was adopted in the same place.
We’ll be gathering at 1:30 PM next Saturday, August 15, in between “Hope Garden,” a memorial to AIDS victims, and “Castle Clinton,” an historic national monument that served as New York’s “Emigrant Landing Depot” before Ellis Island. I can think of no place in New York City more appropriate to take a stand for equality.
And before you say, “It’s too far,” let me assure you not only is it just a short subway or taxi ride, but it is well worth the trip. There’s so much to do in Battery Park, I encourage you to bring your friends and family and make a day of it! Think there’s not much to do in lower Manhattan? Here’s a list of 84 beautiful buildings, just for starters!
After the Kiss-In, take a trip to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, have lunch at Battery Gardens Restaurant, or bring lunch and have a picnic in the park! You can also walk to one of my favorite parts of New York City, The South Street Seaport. You’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner!
More importantly, you’ll be doing something important: Helping support your friends and neighbors, and people all over the world who agree that sharing a kiss with your same-sex partner is important enough to stand up for.
I know this message is a bit long, but I wanted to share with you some of the amazing news about the Kiss-In. Like, our 17 year old Kiss-In organizer in Atlanta, Alex Oxford, who is putting together a Kiss-In all by himself, and competing for attention with Paul McCartney, who is holding a concert in the same park just hours after the Kiss-In. Southern Voice wrote a great piece!
Or, the fact that The Great Nationwide Kiss-In is now an international event, taking place in over 50 cities, plus Canada, and we’re planning events as far away as Saipan, a U.S. Territory north of Guam.
I’m telling you all this, as I had the good fortune to tell Michelangelo Signorile Wednesday on his show, because, honestly, I want to make sure that you realize how important this Kiss-In is, and how proud of everyone I truly am, and how successful I know it will be, if you come. If there’s one thing I think we’ve all learned in the past year, it’s if we don’t push for our rights, or if we leave the work up to others, it won’t happen.
Prop 8 is perhaps the best example of this on the downside, but, on the upside, so are the extraordinary successes we’ve had this year – for example in Maine and New Hampshire. Be a part of The Great Nationwide Kiss-In on the 15th – don’t leave it up to someone else.
If you say, as some have, that you have no one to kiss, it doesn’t matter. Bring someone and share a hug. Or, just show up by yourself. Just showing up is, according to Woody Allen, 80% of success in life!
Please, make the commitment to yourself and your fellow New Yorkers: Make sure you join us next Saturday, at 1:30 PM, and bring your friends, neighbors, family, boyfriend or girlfriend, partner, husband or wife. Everyone, gay or straight, bisexual or transgender, is welcome and encouraged to join us in Battery Park for what will be a fun and important event that will make you feel good not only on that day, but every day you decide to show your loved-one how important they are to you, with a kiss.