PROUD PARADERS: Gay-Straight Alliance members celebrate at a Pride event at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice (BRCSJ), with the BRCSJ float in the background. The first-ever Princeton Pride Parade will start out from the Municipal Building, heading up Witherspoon Street, on Saturday, June 22 at 11 a.m. (Photo courtesy of the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice)

By Donald Gilpin

Princeton’s first-ever Pride Parade is ready to roll out Saturday morning at 11 a.m. from the Municipal Building on Witherspoon Street.

Organized by the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice (BRCSJ), the parade, led by Philadelphia Freedom, an LGBTQIA marching band from Philadelphia, will proceed up Witherspoon Street, turning on Paul Robeson Place, and ending up at an after-party at the YMCA green space with live music, a drag show, food trucks, and “a vast array of speakers,” according to BRCSJ Chief Actifvist Robt Seda-Schreiber.

“The significance and history of this moment is realized both in celebration of this being Princeton’s very first Pride Parade and in recognition and respect to Stonewall 50,” said Seda-Schreiber. “In honor of these concurrent events we will sashay and strut in the delight of how far we have come as much as we will march in solidarity of how far we have yet to go.”

Seda-Schreiber pointed out that sometimes a parade is more than just a parade. “This event will carry forward well beyond this one event, this one day,” he said. “We hope to create an exponential safe space, as this day inspires folks to recognize and celebrate our diversity and our intersectionality.”

Eleven-year-old Mani Martinez, who is organizing a group of young people who will ride bicycles in the parade as part of the “Pride Riders,” commented on the impact of the parade and the BRCSJ, which opened six months ago. “Since it opened, the Center has made me feel safe and happy, more like myself. Now this Pride Parade is going to help a lot of other kids feel that same way, and that makes me even happier.”

Emphasizing the potential impact of the event, Seda-Schreiber continued, “Our kids who are bullied in school, our co-workers who are harassed in their offices, our elders who have spent a lifetime unrecognized as their true selves — they will see us assembled and feel represented, respected, even loved. They can feel like they are a part of something rather than constantly on the outside of it.”

Seda-Schreiber described an extensive array of activities in conjunction with the Pride Parade, starting the night before with Parade Queen and Miss Gay New Jersey Lady Victoria Courtez leading a “Drag Me to Yoga” class at 6 p.m. at BRCSJ headquarters on Wiggins Street, then the first mini-parade down to the Princeton Arts Council for a Queer Pride Dance at 8 p.m., featuring Grand Marshal Mike Hot-Pence.

With 40 different businesses, nonprofits, school groups, and others already registered, and an enthusiastic online response, Seda-Schreiber is hoping for a sizable crowd. A volunteer meeting last Saturday drew more than 50 supporters. “But this is not about the size of the crowd,” he said. “It’s about that one individual in the midst of that crowd who will find solace, acceptance, and love.”

Governor Phil Murphy and First Lady Tammy Murphy, Assemblyman Andrew Zwicker, and most of the members of Princeton Council are expected to attend, Seda-Schreiber noted.

The inaugural Princeton Pride Parade was conceived by Seda-Schreiber and BRCSJ Community Outreach Coordinator Carol Watchler a few months ago as a way to celebrate Pride Month and spotlight LGBTQIA work done locally, especially the current initiatives of the younger generation. The idea quickly won the support of Mayor Liz Lempert, Princeton Council members, business and community leaders, and the local Police, Fire Safety, and Health Departments.

Hoping to see the momentum from the Pride Parade carry over to the ongoing work of the BRCSJ, Seda-Schreiber noted that the Center would be introducing a sliding fee scale, with no one turned away for lack of funds; a therapy program for LGBTQIA youth; social and political programming for LGBTQIA adults; and two events highlighting the history of the movement: Stonewall on June 26 and a talk with Hugh Ryan, author of When Brooklyn Was Queer, on Saturday, July 6.

Further information for those who want to march and support the Pride Parade is available at rustincenter.org/pride-parade.

Reflecting on the history of the Pride movement, Frank Mahood, 80-year-old founding member of Gay People Princeton, recalled, “Although I was out to my friends, in my early 30s and on the staff of the University, I was a little reluctant to come to the new Gay Alliance of Princeton group that had just been started by two brave undergraduate students in 1972. I’m so grateful I did, and it changed my life.” 

He continued, “The coming together of so many others like myself gave us the courage to protest, march, petition, and succeed in changing laws that discriminated against us. So much of this struggle has taken place on the state and national level, and it is thrilling that the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice has taken up the mantle for us here in the Princeton area. It’s hard to believe that this will be the first such event here, and I’m so grateful the BRCSJ is providing us with this exciting opportunity.”