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A few posts ago I mentioned that I was getting to go to a reception given by NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg to celebrate LGBT Pride Month. The reception, which was a BBQ, was held yesterday evening at Gracie Mansion, the Mayor’s official residence, and it was very cool to be there. NYCGHA had three-fourths of the executive board there as well as our webmaster and some players too.

The funniest part of the reception was right at the start as you walked in. As you checked in, you got a mailing label that you were told to fill out for your picture with the Mayor. Then you were queued up in line, a very fast moving line. When you got to the Mayor, you were told by a staffer where to go stand as you shake his hand. When you get there, in a move you know he’s practiced a lot, he shakes your hand, freezes for the picture and the moves you along all in one fluid movement. He knows he’s good at this, he even made a joke about it during his remarks later. He took like 550 pictures with more than 800 people in just about 40 minutes, wow!

The food was quite good, and was a real barbecue with pulled pork, hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, cole slaw, cornbread and for desert cookies with frosting the colors of the pride rainbow as well as watermelon (including yellow watermelon, which I had never seen before) and a strawberry pastry. And the setting in the yard, the East River and Tri-Borough Bridge for scenery, with brightly colored picnic tables was cool.

The Mayor also addressed the crowd with a brief speech. It was great to hear a high ranking politician speak so candidly about the importance of inclusion for the LGBT community and his support of gay marriage, even saying he’d go to Albany to fight the fight. He also spoke about the recent hate crimes in the city recently and vowed that, along with the police chief, they would see to it that they were all dealt with swiftly and to the fullest extent of the law.

There was also one celebrity sighting at the event: Queer Eye’s Carson was there.

Once I get the official photo in the mail, I’ll scan it and post it. You can check out some other pics I shot in the Photo Album.