Being allowed to feel proud of oneself can save a life.
That may sound simple, perhaps even obvious, until one considers how many LGBTQIA+ children, teens, and emerging adults are still asked, quietly or loudly, to survive without that luxury. Pride is not merely a month of parties. It is protection, language, and a public refusal of shame. At its most urgent, it gives the next generation proof that their lives are not problems to be solved, but possibilities to be defended, funded, and joyfully imagined.
That truth gave The Wall Street Hotel’s annual Summer Sunset Rooftop Pride Celebration its deeper charge. On Monday, June 22, the property welcomed celebrities, media figures, fashion insiders, philanthropists, civic leaders, and cultural tastemakers for a benefit supporting the Perry Moore Hero Fund Scholarship and Hetrick-Martin Institute. Above the Financial District, the rooftop became a very New York sanctuary: skyline views, florals, cotton candy wigs, THC-infused mocktails, music, laughter, and a cause substantial enough to keep glamour from drifting into decoration.
Hosted by Andy Cohen, Cynthia Rowley, Mickey Boardman, Allison Sarofim, Hunter Hill, Amy Harclerode, Jason Weinberg, and Prince A. Sanders, the evening had social electricity from the start. Television, fashion, publishing, philanthropy, nightlife, and downtown mischief met in that specific Manhattan register: glossy, clever, flirtatious, and fully aware of the camera.
Cohen, of course, deserves his own small altar. Bravo genius, cultural instigator, and the man partly responsible for my highly curated addiction to *Real Housewives*, he brought the sort of presence that makes a toast feel intimate and deliciously famous. The room understood both the joke and the stakes.
The beauty mattered. A rooftop Pride celebration should have flirtation, excellent lighting, absurd hair, and a terrace that knows exactly what it is doing. The THC drinks, naturally, had the crowd feeling fizzy in more ways than one. Nothing felt heavy-handed, yet the message stayed clear.
LGBTQIA+ young people remain painfully vulnerable to adult cruelty dressed as policy, punditry, or moral concern. Their identities are too often turned into arguments by people remarkably comfortable debating lives they are not responsible for nurturing. Against that backdrop, an event like this becomes more than summer sparkle. It becomes a civic correction with better lighting.
Hetrick-Martin Institute, the nation’s oldest LGBTQIA+ youth services organization, provides free, long-term support for queer and trans people, primarily young people of color between 13 and 24. The Perry Moore Hero Fund Scholarship honors literature’s power to inspire courage, awarding college scholarships to writers telling stories of tolerance, strength, and LGBTQIA+ life. Together, those efforts create infrastructure for becoming.
A scholarship can become permission. A counselor can become ballast. A safe space can become the first place someone hears, with authority, that their existence is not a liability.
Harclerode gave brief yet impassioned remarks that held the emotional thesis of the night. After I introduced myself, she beamed about what comes next with a certainty that did not feel rehearsed. She spoke about HMI’s work not as charity, but as cultivation. The people supported by the institute are not abstractions, statistics, or seasonal talking points. They are opportunity manifested: students, artists, authors, advocates, leaders in formation, and, frankly, a generation of real social power brokers being given the tools to shape a better world.
That left me feeling assured. That is magic.
It is one thing to speak about hope. It is another to stand near someone doing the daily labor of making possibility practical. Harclerode’s optimism did not feel naive. It felt earned. Her vision suggested that when queer and trans youth receive safety, language, education, and cultural access, they do not simply survive. They begin to build.
The landmark Tontine building offered a fitting stage, with Beaux-Arts character and modern New York polish. For this gathering, hospitality became platform. Sanders led a heartfelt toast alongside Harclerode and Cohen, speaking to the importance of creating spaces where people feel seen, welcomed, and connected.
The crowd included Sophia Bush, Carson Kressley, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Candice Kumai, Kevin Aviance, Ty Hunter, Orfeh, New York City Council Member Erik Bottcher, and many more.
Shaquetta Saintange brought full drag electricity to the rooftop, turning the celebration toward theater, humor, and release. DJ Lina Bradford had me dancing almost immediately, which is generally the highest compliment I can give any DJ before the sun has finished setting. Her set loosened the room, sharpened the joy, and made the skyline feel like part of the choreography.
Guests enjoyed light bites, vibrant cocktails, floral bouquet takeaways courtesy of Altocanna, cotton candy creations, and a bling bar that understood sparkle as a civic right. The pleasure did not dilute the stakes. It made the advocacy more radiant.
With flowers, bass, THC fizz, Bravo mischief, drag brilliance, and genuine feeling, the celebration insisted that LGBTQIA+ youth deserve more than protection from harm. They deserve authorship, care, education, delight, and lives expansive enough to hold their gifts.
The Wall Street Hotel gave that vision height, beauty, and a crowd willing to celebrate without forgetting the fight.
