Community Corner
2012 Brooklyn Pride Parade Marks a Return to Diversity, Organizers Say
Groups behind the annual LGBTQ event on Park Slope's Fifth Avenue reached out to more organizations of color to make this year as inclusive and diverse as possible.
Brooklyn Pride’s Twilight Parade in Park Slope kicked off on Saturday night, and event organizers believe they are giving Manhattan’s massive annual gay Pride March a run for their money with their mix of big names and neighborhood feel, according to Next Magazine.
“[Pride March] is so big and so huge that the crowds aren’t able to get as close,” Mickey Heller, Brooklyn Pride co-chair, told the magazine.
“I’m particularly excited about the fact that Brooklyn Pride seems to be expanding beyond its attachment area of Park Slope,” Robert West, a volunteer, was quoted in the article before the Pride parade.
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According to the article, this year they received sponsorship from Condom Nation, and even partner organization Queens Pride pitched in to make the Brooklyn parade a success.
“When [the parade] was set up sixteen years ago we had everyone in there—men, women, transgendered, black, white, green, Asian—whatever, we had it,” Jerry Allred, a founding member of Brooklyn Pride, told the magazine.
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And, as the piece noted, this year the addition of Heller as co-chair has marked a return to that diversity.
“We’re reaching out to a lot of different organizations of color and other organizations just to become more inclusive, and want to feel that whole Brooklyn spirit,” Heller told the Next.
