You can’t spell “rainbow” without “rain.”
Despite less-than-ideal weather, Brooklyn Pride Day kicked off without a hitch this past Saturday, June 14, with its annual celebration convening local queer community members and allies for family-friendly festivities in a 14-block stretch along Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue.
Beginning at noon and carrying on well after the sun had set, the volunteer-run event consisted of a daytime street festival and twilight parade that later transformed into a full-out block party (no pun intended), as per tradition. It gathered a plethora of local artists and performance groups, cultural organizations, neighborhood businesses, health advocacy groups, and city politicians, who shielded themselves from the rainy weather with plastic ponchos, umbrellas, tents, and rubber boots.
There was an undercurrent of urgency to this year’s queer celebration, as it came amid President Donald Trump’s incessant attacks on LGBTQ+ rights. This grave feeling was echoed in anti-Trump signs held by festival-goers arriving from the “No Kings” protests that were simultaneously taking place across the East River in midtown Manhattan.
“I think because rights are being revoked, things are feeling more precious now …. This [event] feels more sacred this year because it feels fleeting,” Max Bell, a Brooklyn resident and ACT UP member, told Hyperallergic.
While rainbow-washed corporate marketing gimmicks could be seen across the festival, local organizations and activist groups also took the opportunity to educate, protest, and fundraise. In the middle of the rainy street, a Health Department worker distributed free condoms to raise awareness about sexual health. At a table near a performance stage, Socialist Alternative members sold buttons, broadsides, and apparel decrying Trump’s attacks on trans communities. Other booths sold posters comparing Trump and Elon Musk to clowns and displayed signs opposing disgraced former governor and current mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo.
The Pride event also brought together local artists of all media. At Dyke March’s table, organizers screenprinted clothing in advance of the group’s annual protest procession later this month; the group also distributed zines titled after this year’s march theme, “Dykes Say No To Facism.” At another table, Brooklyn Creative Reuse, a nonprofit that collects and repurposes art materials, raised funds for its forthcoming physical location by selling gently used supplies, including quilt squares, buttons, sewing materials, and paints.
In front of the Ripped Bodice bookstore, Queens-based trans artist Ash Craig set up an impromptu Pride-themed face-painting stand, offering his services to festival attendees for free. He had decided only last minute to attend, as he was unsure if the weather would hold.
“ [The amount of] people out here in the rain shows how much people really need the queer joy right now,” Craig told Hyperallergic.
