PHOTOS BY MICHAEL LUONGO | The City Council’s annual celebration of Pride Month, hosted by Speaker Christine Quinn and Councilmembers Rosie Mendez, Daniel Dromm, and Jimmy Van Bramer, honored Dee Rees, director of the Sundance Film Festival award-winning film “Pariah,” the gripping story of an African-American teenage lesbian struggling to come into her own growing up in Fort Greene; the NYPD’s LGBT Advisory Panel (below); and Hermes Mallea and Carey Maloney, leaders of LGBT @ NYPL, for their work to expand the number of LGBT books in the New York Public Library system.
The June 12 event, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg,
included remarks by Congregation Beit Simchat Torah Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum,
and a performance by a dance troupe from the Door's Pier-45 Outreach program (right, top), who received a certificate of appreciation.
Rob Smith, a former specialist in the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, opened the ceremony with the Pledge of Allegiance.