There's also a strong family component to New Jersey's biggest and oldest pride event, the Jersey Pride LGBTQ parade and festival, which celebrated its 27th anniversary on June 3. "Music, a main stage, and a kids' zone where you can just let your kids go do your thing." "We designed it with parents in mind," Prince said.
The last one, on a rainy June 3, attracted 5,000 people to Memorial Park in Maplewood, Some 100 vendors provided food and crafts, there was live music, and everything was kept comfortably PG. The North Jersey Pride Festival, which Prince helped create, was devised to appeal to families (though not exclusively).
One was 2 and the other was 5. … Pushing a double stroller down Fifth Avenue in the middle of Pride is not as much fun as it's cracked up to be." A Pride festival for families "I had been going to New York City Pride my whole adult life. "It was really me and one other mom talking one night over coffee or something," Prince recalled. When residents began planning their own LGBTQ celebrations in 2011, they had something in mind that was more family-oriented, and less raucous, than the annual jamboree down Fifth Avenue. "The gay agenda, for us, is getting up in the morning, getting your kids' breakfast, and getting your kids ready for school, Prince joked. "We're as boring as everyone else. Maplewood, Prince said, "has a very high concentration of same sex couples raising children."Īnd some of the earliest memories those kids may have is holding hands with their mommies, or daddies, as they use the rainbow crosswalks - a newly-unveiled, permanent feature at the intersection of Valley Street and Oakview Avenue. This suburban community, in fact, could be a bellwether for the mainstreaming of Pride - no longer the exotic, urban thing it was 40 years ago. "This neighborhood is very unique," Prince said. For the second year in a row, the Pride March will be televised on a major network: WABC Channel 7 will air the event from noon to 3 p.m. T-Mobile, Delta, Target, Macy's, Bud Light, M&M's and Walt Disney are among the more than 50 corporate sponsors that have signed on to this year's event. "This is one of the four biggest events in New York City right now," Sanjivan said. I think there was a combination of different reactions."Īs America has evolved - up to and including the right for gays to marry in 2015 - so has the march. "Some people were very supportive, cheering them on," said Julian Sanjivan, now the event director for the New York City Pride March. The number of people in that first event has been disputed - some say about 2,000, others say more. More: Celebrate Pride Month in style at Macy'sĬertainly, the 2018 march has come a long way since the first one - on June 28, 1970, the first anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion - was greeted by onlookers with a mixture of disbelief, encouragement, and ridicule.
More: Maplewood marks Gay Pride Month with rainbow crosswalks More: Gay cop Robert DeVito who is suing Palisades Park fired They're not worried like they would have been 20 years ago that someone would think they're gay." "I think already people feel included in the celebration. Prince, executive director of North Jersey Pride.
"That's what I'd like it to be," said C.J. If Pride, in 2018, is not yet quite as mainstream as the Saint Paddy's Day parade, that tipping point could be fast approaching.