The Lesbian & Gay Big Apple Corps
(LGBAC) on Thursday became the first LGBT marching band to perform in
the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
LGBAC, one of the first queer marching
bands in the United States, was founded in 1979 in New York City.
At Thursday's scaled down parade, the
marching band performed ABBA's Dancing Queen as a tribute to
the LGBT Pride parades canceled this year due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
Marita Begley, the group's director,
described performing in the annual parade as reaching “the
mountaintop.”
Speaking with The Atlantic,
Begley called the marching band members “quiet activists.”
“We were quiet activists. No one
would invite ACT UP to their parade,” she said, referring to the
HIV/AIDS group. “But small towns were inviting the Lesbian &
Gay Big Apple Corps to march in their Fourth of July parade.”
“It was almost subversive to use the
most mom-and-apple-pie, all-American of mediums, the marching band,
to open minds. It really is,” she
said.