2026 NYC Pride Guide - Magazine - Page 19
Bowen Yang became a household name as the first Chinese-American cast
member on Saturday Night Live in 2019. With that platform, he helped
usher in an era of authentic queer humor in mainstream media, earning an
Emmy® for writing and becoming the most-nominated Asian male performer in Emmy® history in the process. He continues to shape and celebrate
LGBTQIA+ culture - and pop culture at large - with his acclaimed Las Culturistas podcast and award show. Yang said: “The Pride March has held my
best memories and also my most dehydrated. Please remember to drink
water on the day. Being a Grand Marshal in the city that helped me find my
community and my voice is incredibly special. Marsha P. Johnson was fighting for all of us,
and we owe it to her to keep up that fight today.”
MARCHING CONTINGENT: ASIAN AMERICAN LEGAL DEFENSE
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national organization founded in 1974, protects and
promotes the civil rights of Asian Americans. Their work focuses on anti-Asian violence, economic justice, educational equity, housing and environmental justice, housing, and voting rights. aaldef.org
COMEDIAN. WRITER. CULTURISTA.
Reflect on your personal
connection to the 2026 NYC
Pride theme, “For All of Us”, a
direct reference to the famous
Marsha P. Johnson quote,
“There’s no pride for some of
us without liberation for all of
us” - what does that mean to
you, and why do you think it
resonates right now.
To me, it means letting the
most vulnerable among us
dictate the terms, and that
any chance we have at rallying against oppressive systems and policies has to be
vertical rather than lateral.
Things start to break down
along left and right, when
it’s really about power from
the top as it gets enforced
to the bottom. The only way
we get through this is if we
build coalitions across ideologies and lock into collective
action.
As we look to build a future
“for all of us”, why is it
important that we look to our
history?
Our history orients us.
Marsha reminds us that what
was true at the beginning
is true now, and if we don’t
look at where we came from,
we’ll never reach our destination.
To you, what does liberation
look like “for all of us”?
Safety nets and therefore
the freedom to fail, when
success and failure shouldn’t
even be an organizing principle to begin with. The mutual aid motto of “Who takes
care of us? We take care of
us” lets everything else fall
into place.
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