By now, queer Brooklynites know the routine: On the second Saturday of June, folks flock to Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue — with dogs and lawn chairs in tow — and get in position for the annual twilight Brooklyn Pride March just before the sun prepares to dip below the horizon.
But that wasn’t always the routine.
In 1996, there was no such thing as Brooklyn Pride. But several Brooklyn residents — led in large part by Jerry Allred and Sonia Galarza, who went on to be the original chairs of Brooklyn Pride — put their heads together to pave the way for a major Pride event to take over the city’s most populous borough. After all, the Queens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival had already established a presence in the neighboring borough for several years. A document from Brooklyn Pride’s 20th anniversary in 2016 notes that Dale Gates was also one of the individuals who helped get Brooklyn Pride off the ground.
The following year, on June 14, 1997, Brooklyn hosted its first-ever Pride Parade and multicultural festival, which kicked off at Third Street and Fifth Avenue and concluded at Prospect Park, according to Mickey Heller, who is Brooklyn Pride’s co-chair.
“There were a lot of great relationships between people from Queens and Brooklyn,” Heller said in a recent interview with Gay City News. “And then, after Queens started, Brooklyn felt it was time to have our own.”
Heller, an attorney and Bronx native who has spent several decades living in Brooklyn, first became involved with Brooklyn Pride in 2007 and 2008 when he was asked to drive former Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz’s parade float. From there, Heller volunteered in different capacities with Brooklyn Pride before ultimately taking on a leadership role as co-chair in 2012 — the same role he holds today. Heller is the longest-serving board member or chair of Brooklyn Pride.
While Brooklyn Pride is known to have the city’s only twilight Pride Parade, that wasn’t exactly by choice. After Brooklyn Pride’s first year, the board decided the event should be held at night — partly because they couldn’t have it on Sundays, as many other Prides do, because the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade takes place the following day.
No matter how or why it came to be, the twilight aspect has helped shape the parade’s identity and contributed to its community-driven atmosphere. Families and friends line the parade route along Fifth Avenue, nearby residents take in the festivities from their windows and fire escapes, and locals spill out of nearby establishments like Ginger’s and Good Judy — all in the spirit of Pride.
“People can come up to us and say they appreciate that we don’t have barricades,” Heller said. “People can come up, the people marching can say hi, and it’s such a good, congenial atmosphere that people have an incredible time.”
The annual parade typically follows an action-packed day at the festival, which features vendors, dancers, cheerleaders, food, and music. The festival, in fact, has been such an integral part of Brooklyn Pride that when the parade was canceled in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival still went on.
Over time, Brooklyn Pride expanded beyond the twilight march and festival. It currently includes events like a 5K run and a special Brooklyn Cyclones Pride Night package, through which the Mets’ single-A minor league affiliate donates a portion of its ticket proceeds to Brooklyn Pride. Movie nights, comedy nights, and even stargazing events are among Brooklyn Pride’s other offerings.
Now, three decades after its debut, Brooklyn Pride is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a special gala at the Dyker Beach Golf Course Catering Hall on April 18. The event also serves as a fundraiser for Brooklyn Pride, which has sought to maintain tighter budgets over the years to remain financially stable — a key factor at a time when many other Prides, like NYC Pride, have experienced financial hardship and anti-LGBTQ backlash.
“Because of the founders and other people throughout the years, we’ve been very fortunate to be very frugal,” Heller said. “We didn’t rely on city dollars, and we didn’t rely on huge amounts of money. Everyone is a volunteer, and because of that, we have not really experienced the financial hardship that some of the other Pride organizations have experienced. Sponsors have stayed on, for the most part.”
This year, the Brooklyn Cyclones Pride Night game is slated to take place on June 12 — the day before Brooklyn Pride’s main event. On June 13, the Brooklyn Pride LGBTQIA+ 5K Run/Walk takes place from 10 a.m. to noon, while the multicultural festival kicks off at 11 a.m. and continues throughout the afternoon. The annual Brooklyn Pride Twilight Parade will, as usual, begin at precisely 7:30 p.m.
“We are not a 19-hour parade; we start at 7:30 sharp every year since I’ve been there, and we finish no later than 10 o’clock,” Heller said.
Get out to Brooklyn on June 13 and celebrate Pride — and bring your family, friends, and dogs.
Below, see some more Brooklyn Pride photos from over the years. Click here to read our coverage of last year’s edition of Brooklyn Pride.
