PRIDE
RUSA LGBT Leads YouTube Brighton Beach Pride
Southern Brooklyn’s queer community gathers in digital fashion for fourth annual event
BY MATT TRACY
The coronavirus pandemic
forced Brighton
Beach Pride to go virtual
for 2020, but organizers
successfully made the most of
the unprecedented circumstances,
bringing speakers and entertainers
from across the city and
around the world to participate in
the neighborhood’s fourth annual
Pride event on May 31.
There was even a creative, quarantine
style music performance
by individuals cooped up in their
homes. With Rainbow Flags in the
background and some individuals
donning Black Lives Matter shirts,
musicians played different instruments
and sang, “Profi teers and
racists, you may be surprised/
Against your toxic system, we’re
getting immunized/ All you fascists
bound to lose/ Bailout for the
bosses, workers get the squeeze.”
The virtual Pride gathering, organized
by a Southern Brooklynbased
Russian-speaking LGBTQ
organization known as RUSA
LGBT, focused on celebrating the
local queer community, uplifting
immigrants, shining a light on
queer persecution in Chechnya,
and bolstering other marginalized
groups that have been impacted
by the coronavirus pandemic. As
in previous years, organizers underscored
an intersectional message
that included themes of racial
justice, and that was even more
timely this year in light of the recent
killings of George Floyd in
Minneapolis and trans man Tony
McDade in Tallahassee, Florida,
as well as other Black individuals
around the nation who have been
victims of police violence.
INDEPENDENT PROBE, from p.6
who called on all fi ve district attorneys
to drop charges against
protesters, and Councilmember
Carlos Menchaca of Brooklyn, who
wrote in a tweet, “Forget @NYCMayor.
The @NYCCouncil & State
Yelena Goltsman (top right) speaks during RUSA LGBT’s Brighton Beach Pride event alongside Lyosha
Gorshkov (top left) and Gleb Vakrushev.
“We see the unrest that’s happening
and we see the reason,”
Yelena Goltsman, founder and copresident
of RUSA LGBT, said in a
written statement. “We are in solidarity
with those who are protesting
police violence and brutality.
Just as we say ‘silence is death,’ we
should say ‘Black lives matter’ because
they do.”
Goltsman underscored the economic
impact of the coronavirus
pandemic on the local Russianspeaking
communities,, especially
among those who are undocumented
and lack access to the same
kind of government assistance as
others. Goltsman stressed to viewers
watching the broadcast that
RUSA LGBT’s website has a donation
page where all of the proceeds
go directly to folks in need.
“The fi rst ones to lose their jobs
are the people who are undocumented,
who don’t have support,”
Goltsman said. “Those people just
lost their jobs immediately, and
Legislature have the power of law
and accountability. We must use
it. Defund the NYPD. Repeal 50a.
Give CCRB real teeth.” (Section
50-a of state law provides a shield
against disclosure of police personnel
performance information.
The CCRB, or Civilian Complaint
Review Board, has independent
YOUTUBE/ RUSA LGBT
180 people have asked us for help.
We did help as much as we could
with some of the very important
donations.”
Elected offi cials, religious leaders,
and activists were among those
who appeared on the broadcast
during the fi rst half of a three-hour
event on YouTube Live. American
Federation of Teachers president
Randi Weingarten and her wife
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah
Senior Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
joined State Attorney General Letitia
James, City Councilmember
Daniel Dromm of Queens, and others
who offered words of encouragement
for the community.
Activists Ann Northrop and Ken
Kidd also appeared on the broadcast
holding a long Rainbow Flag
that said “RUSSIAN.”
In a brief message, James noted
the passing last month of AIDS
activist, playwright, screenwriter,
and author Larry Kramer before
saying how proud she was to stand
oversight of the NYPD.)
While Johnson on May 31 called
for a seven percent budget cut
across all city agencies due to a $9
billion defi cit that was ballooned
by the coronavirus pandemic,
Menchaca was more specifi c about
what he believes should be defunded.
with Brighton Beach’s LGBTQ and
Russian-speaking community.
“Today we celebrate the power
of collective action, fi ghting every
way we can,” James said. “We also
recognize there is much more to
come.”
Kleinbaum, who has appeared
at Brighton Beach Pride in the
past, voiced solidarity with the
local community as she spoke
of growing up with parents who
were dedicated to dissolving the
Soviet Union. Kleinbaum’s wife,
Weingarten, said she is the greatgranddaughter
of immigrants from
Ukraine.
“I know many of you came to
America to escape the hatred and
bigotry many LGBTQ people face
in other parts of the world,” Weingarten
said. “We’ve made incredible
progress, but there’s still so far
to go.”
Dromm, who chairs the City
Council’s LGBT Caucus, congratulated
RUSA LGBT on the annual
Pride event and said it is especially
important for the community to
show visibility in Brighton Beach.
“In fact, I think Brighton Beach
Pride is one of the most important
Prides in the world,” Dromm said.
“It really gives visibility to a community
that would otherwise not
be known. So when we are bringing
visibility to our communities,
we are in fact fi ghting back against
chronic homophobia.”
The annual Pride event is anticipated
to return to its normal
format next May. The march usually
begins on the Riegelmann
Boardwalk near Coney Island and
continues east to Brighton Beach,
where organizers and speakers deliver
remarks to the crowd in English
and Russian.
“The @NYCMayor is wrong and
late to the game,” Menchaca wrote.
“This @NYCCouncil, led by the @
BLACaucusNYC , will pass necessary
municipal legislation and
pass a balanced budget with a
dramatic defunding of the NYPD. If
anyone gets in our way, just don’t.
Sit down; We got this.”
June 04 - June 17, 2 20 020 | GayCityNews.com
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