Brooklyn Pride Parade Marks a Return to Diversity, Say Organizers

Brooklyn Pride’s Twilight Parade kicked off on Saturday night, and event organizers believe they are giving Manhattan’s massive annual Pride March a run for their money with their mix of big names and neighborhood feel, says 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,” volunteer Robert West told the magazine before the parade.

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.

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“When [the parade] was set up 16 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.

And according to the article, this year the addition of Heller as co-chair has marked a return to that diversity.

“It just needed a push,” Allred told the magazine, which he says has been helped along by the support of Borough President Marty Markowitz.

“We’re the only government building with the gay flag above the building,” Allred told Next.