BROOKLYN, NY, June 9, 2014: Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams hosted board members from Brooklyn Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (G.L.B.T.) Pride in the rotunda of Brooklyn Borough Hall to proclaim the week of June 9 to 14th, 2014 as “Brooklyn Pride Celebration Week”. The event featured the raising of the G.L.B.T. rainbow flag inside of the building; the flag itself will be openly displayed atop Brooklyn Borough Hall for the duration of the week. B/P Adams was impressively also joined by war veterans Jeff Malone, a U.S. Army Specialist who performed the presentation of colors, and Taylor Anderson of the U.S. Air Force, who sang the American national anthem.
“The rainbow flag will be above the entire building for the entire city and state to see that Brooklyn Borough Hall is proud to have a large GLBT population”, said Borough President Adams, who will serve as one of the grand marshals in this year’s "Twilight Pride Parade" in Brooklyn. “It sends a very clear and loud message on how important it is for us as One Brooklyn. This is what America is about, continuing to move the conversation forward. And no one, no place, does it better than the Borough of Brooklyn.”
“As someone who worked here before as an G.L.B.T. liaison, it gives me such pleasure to witness today’s flag raising”, said openly-Gay Council Member Carlos Menchacas, a former staff member at the Brooklyn Borough President’s Office and also one of this year’s grand marshals. “This Gay flag speaks to One Brooklyn. It speaks to a Brooklyn for everyone.”
Brooklyn G.L.B.T. Pride’s 18th Annual Pride celebration, “Coming of Age”, celebrates the innumerable cultures, races and ethnicities that congregate and define Brooklyn. It has grown to become the largest and most prominent organization serving Brooklyn’s G.L.B.T. community. Although Brooklyn Pride’s primary mission is to produce the borough’s annual Pride events, the organization actively works to bring pride year round to every Brooklyn neighborhood.
Handsome Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams speaks at start of Brooklyn Pride Week at Brooklyn Boro Hall.
[Photo Credit: Kathryn Kirk, Office of the Brooklyn Borough President]
Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams
joins members of Brooklyn Pride and other Gay organizations
serving Brooklyn’s G.L.B.T. community, including the STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans Association, the Ali
Forney Center, the Brooklyn Community GLBT Pride Center, the Circle of
Voices, Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD), the GRIOT Circle, and
the Hetrick-Martin Institute home of the Gay High School, at his
kick-off of Brooklyn G.L.B.T. Pride Week at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
[Photo Credit: Kathryn Kirk, Brooklyn B/P’s Office]
Gay Pride Note: The STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans Association (S.V.A.) exclusively represents the members who largely "ignited the modern G.L.B.T. rights movement"! Ironically, the SVA's founder and director Willson Henderson was born in Brooklyn -- Flatbush off Church Avenue with the trolley cars! Willson has now lived in New York City for six-plus decades! For about a dozen years, the S.V.A. with the famous blue 1969 classic convertible filled with veterans of the landmark STONEWALL Bar & Dance Club Uprising on Christopher Street in Manhattan generously and proudly led the nighttime Brooklyn Gay Pride Parade!