Brooklyn Pride! BROOKLYN-USA.ORG
Park Slope Pride Parade proves to be an
exuberant strut of Brooklyn’s diversity
Borough President Adams marched in the parade and said he’s “proud to stand with Brooklyn’s
LGBTQ community since Day One.” Donna Aceto
ONE BROOKLYN | SUMMER 2019 13
It was a Saturday evening love fest
in Brooklyn.
In a June 8 twilight parade
down Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue
that drew thousands and lasted
for hours, the crowd — both activists
and elected officials marching
and spectators lining the sidewalk
for the event’s 15-block stretch —
emphasized over and over again
that love, acceptance, and diversity
were the key words defining LGBTQ
Pride in the city’s most populous
borough.
And if the evening was centered
on queer pride, it was also a celebration
of pride in the special qualities
of Brooklyn and of New York City as
whole.
For spectator Rosin Kaplan, who
grew up in Park Slope, moved elsewhere,
including San Francisco
and, most recently for five years,
New Orleans, moving back to the
Flatbush side of Prospect Park
three years ago was a welcome
coming home.
“I would say one of the reasons
I’m back in New York is that I didn’t
want to have any more anxiety
about being gay,” Kaplan said. “After
so many years of being stressed
about it as an adult, it’s really nice
to be older and be like really gay in
a really gay city. I mean this city is
so gay. It’s so relaxing. It’s normal
here to be gay.”
Kaplan and her business partner
Sasha Rose — who was visiting for
10 days from New Orleans — had
spent the afternoon vending their
T-shirts at the Pride Festival, and
said they were ready to sleep once
the parade wrapped up.
“We want to be ready to go to Riis
Park tomorrow and be gay there,”
Kaplan said.
Becca Farsace and Allison Talum
are a couple who just moved in
together in an apartment around
the corner from Fifth Avenue after
each lived in a different part of the
borough.
“This is our first time coming,”
Farsace said of Brooklyn Pride.
“We’re new to the neighborhood
but not to Brooklyn. I really dig the
community here and it feels smaller
and not as commercial ized.”
Both she and Talum pointed to
the large number of families in attendance
with their small children.
“One thing that’s great is that
Park Slope is a real family sort of
neighborhood, and I really appreciate
that everybody is bringing
their kids out and seeing the community
for what it is, a very loving
and accepting neighborho od,”
Talum said.
Brooklyn Borough President
Eric L. Adams said the event perfectly
captures a half century of LGBTQ
traditions that have grown up
since the Stonewall riots in 1969.
“This year’s Pride celebration
is a particularly important one, because
this is the 50th anniversary
of Stonewall, a landmark moment in
the long struggle for LGBTQ equality.
I have been so proud to stand
with Brooklyn’s LGBTQ community
since Day One,” Adams said.
“Pride is an important reminder of
how far we’ve come and how far we
have yet to go.”
Carlos Menchaca, the first out
gay member of the City Council
elected from Brooklyn, also
hailed the spirit of the Park Slope
celebration.
“Everyone feels welcome,” he
declared.
The Dykes on Bikes had their traditional lead position in the
parade. Donna Aceto
/BROOKLYN-USA.ORG
