Celebrate Brooklyn Pride This Week!

After 15 years, Brooklyn Pride is still going strong.

The annual LGBT celebration kicks off on Monday with a series of events, including an LGBT art exhibition, a fundraising dance and the famous Brooklyn Pride Parade.

“A number of people came together and asked ‘Why do we have go into Manhattan to have pride?’” said Zully Rolan, the chair of Brooklyn Pride.

Thanks to Brooklyn Pride, of course, now the answer is that they don't. And as all things Brooklyn, the celebration has quickly become a louder, livlier version of its Manhattan counterpart.

Among the highlights this year: “Sorry…” a play with music by Steve Fisher that was inspired by the life of Tyler Clementi, a gay 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman who committed suicide last fall after a roommate taped him having a sexual encounter with another man, and an ongoing LGBT art exhibit, “Lights of Color.”

Originally the pride celebration was held inside Prospect Park, but since then the festival has expanded to take over nearly all of Brooklyn with three weeks of fun-filled pride activities that celebrate Brooklyn’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities.

But the festival isn't just about letting that rainbow flag fly – it's about celebrating the diverse makeup of the LGBT community.

“We just want to show that we have different talents, not put people in a box,” said Alvaro Luna, the curator of “Lights of Color,” which features four artists who do not necessarily create art that is LGBT-themed.

“We want to bring culture to the festival.”

The festival was initially started by Brooklyn Pride, a non-profit organization that fights for fair treatment in the LGBT community. Since then, Brooklyn Borough President 's office and the Brooklyn Community Pride Center, which provides physical and mental health services, recreational and cultural programming and support for the LGBT community in Brooklyn, have joined in to sponsor the event.

Though Rolan acknowledged that there will always be people protesting against LGBT celebrations, she said that Brooklyn Pride has worked very closely with residents and to ensure the "LGBT community is shown in a positive light.”

“As we struggle for equality and against being second class citizens, it’s so important to show the diversity of diversity,” Rolan said.

And of course, it's also important to show that Brooklyn's got game.

“Brooklyn has one of the largest LGBT populations," said Mark Zustovich, Markowitz’s press secretary. "If not in New York City, then in the nation, especially in Park Slope.”

For the full line-up of Brooklyn Pride’s 15th Annual Pride Celebration: “The Many Faces of PRIDE,” visit www.brooklynpride.org and www.lgbtbrooklyn.org.