It’s Pride month and ahead of Manhattan’s big parade on June 28, which sees upwards of two million people each year, the outer boroughs conducted their own festivities. In the Bronx, Borough President Vanessa Gibson led the 28th official Pride parade along the Grand Concourse on Saturday along with cheering marchers.
“In this climate where we’re seeing a denigration of immigrants, of undocumented individuals, of the LGBT community, of people of color, of women. We’re seeing the Supreme Court overturn so many laws that our ancestors have fought for. Recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday, right? All of this comes together, and that’s why Pride is so important for the month of June,” Gibson told the Bronx Times.
However, not everyone was feeling the togetherness. As parade organizers and participants set up in Lou Gehrig Plaza on 161st Street, so did a counter, right across the way in Joyce Kilmer Park. About two dozen people made up Bronx Queers for Palestine and the Bronx Anti-War Coalition, who began their march about 20 minutes before the Pride parade kicked off around 12:30 p.m.
”They are not addressing the issues of what Bronxites need, specifically queer Bronxites,” said one of the counter-marchers who did not want to disclose their name. “No one is talking about the poverty issue here, the homelessness here. They’re not talking about what’s going on in Palestine.”
To which Gibson responded, “What I’d rather do is broadly talk about just the federal administration, how they’re attacking our human rights and voting rights and LGBT rights.”
There are currently 530 anti-LGBTQ bills across the U.S., according to the American Civil Liberties Union, from things as serious as gender-affirming healthcare to things as simple as being allowed to fly the trans and gay flags.
“There has not been a borough president that has embraced the LGBTQ community – not just embraced it, celebrated, highlighted, put it up front and center – as Vanessa,” Charles Rice-Gonzalez said, executive director of the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance. He also mentioned the names of activists who were “here and queer, and not here anymore.” Names like Ron Jacobowitz, activist who co-founded Gay Men of the Bronx and Bronx Lesbians.
Shortly thereafter, the parade marched southbound like a grassroots movement; no barricades, no police tape and no designated spectators. When parade-goers turned left onto 149th Street, the crowds blended. Unsuspecting passersby found themselves casually engulfed in a sea of rainbow flags. Store-owners walked outside their establishments as they heard the music from the Keeping It Classic Tessa drummers. Some people pulled out their phones to record and waved to the crowd as they passed, some remained indifferent, but no one was hostile. It was a beautiful sunny day of openness and acceptance.
“For a little gay boy from the Bronx, from the projects, to even get a chance to be a part of something that is about visibility, about showing up, about being there for, not only yourself, but the youth that comes after you, the girl in me, the little princess in me is super happy to do this,” Grand Marshal Lanye Armon said, and last year’s winner of Miss Bronx Pride. Armon recalled finding her identity at the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club in the Bronx as a 14-year-old seeking community.
”[It’s] where I learned that there are people that actually see us and want to keep us safe and wanna be around us, and treat us as such, and nurture it.”
The parade ended at Westchester Avenue by La Central YMCA in The Hub with “the largest LGBTQ+ Pride celebration in the Bronx,” courtesy of Destination Tomorrow, the Bronx’s LGBT center.
Titled this year, From Da Bronx to Da World, the theme of the festival reflects the simultaneity of Pride and New York’s World Cup season. On stage, Sage Rivera aka Vivika Westwood, announced the incoming groups, including Gay Men’s Health, VNS Health, the American Cancer Society, the Bronx CUNY schools and others.
June Jambalaya of RuPaul’s Drag Race hosted the celebration with live performances, including pop singer JoJo. Food, resources, SWAG bags and community were plenty as a spectrum of people broke into dance and vogued the day away.
Reach ET Rodriguez at etrodriguez317@gmail.com. For more coverage, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
