Bishop McKechnie made a “small” version of a Pride flag for Portland’s Pride Parade in 2006.
Measuring 22-feet wide and 125-feet long that year, the River of Pride flag has grown just a bit since then.
This year it’s in New York City for its Pride Parade on Sunday, and is now 1,650-feet long, meaning the banner stretches more than a quarter-mile.
The River of Pride Flag is spread out on the floor of the Gevolution gymnasium May 5 in Augusta. Created by Bishop McKechnie, it will be carried Sunday in the New York City Pride parade. Photo courtesy of Project Unity
McKechnie created a new Pride flag this year — the Unity Flag — that measures 20-feet by 200-feet, and is comprised of a number of 3-foot by 5-foot flags.
McKechnie and his husband, David Hopkins, own the Merkaba Sol shop in downtown Augusta.
This year’s Pride celebration takes on special meaning, as it marks the 50th anniversary of New York’s Stonewall riots. That was a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the LGBT community against a police raid that began in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Those events are considered a pivotal event in the start of the gay liberation movement and modern fight for LGBT rights in the U.S.
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