How on Brighton Beach passed the second Pride of the Russian-speaking LGBT community in New York

On a sunny Sunday, the twentieth of May, over the famous promenade, where people like to sit admiring the ocean, “our people” are young and old, rainbow flags shot out and unusual speeches were heard. “Homophobia is a terror”, “This looks like democracy looks like” - a crowd chanting, where Americans and Russian-speaking immigrants mixed from all over the post-Soviet space.

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

The familiar and already funny slogan “Sausages Enough for All” became a landmark for the Brighton Beach Pride, organized by the efforts of the initiative group of asylum-seekers and immigrants RUSA LGBT. About 500 people came to support the idea of ​​a pride in a landmark Russian region. Why do we need Brighton Beach Pride? And whether we need it, we asked the organizers, participants, friends of the community and passers-by.

Alexey Gorshkov, vice president of RUSAL LGBT, founder and inspirer of the Brighton Beach Pride, notes that this Pride was more numerous and dynamic this year. He is also pleased that the number of Russian-speaking LGBTIK participants has increased.

“We didn’t encounter any negativity from those around us,” says Alexey, who was the frontliner of the column. “Many people greeted us and danced. Brighton residents have already heard about Pride, and therefore the path to dialogue is open! This is the main goal of Pride - to reach out to local residents, letting them know that we did not come with a sword, but in peace!”

The pride began at noon on Coney Island, amid rides and holidaymakers strolling with children past rainbow flags and people with stickers on clothes that represent the letter Q in a multicolored circle. For the first half hour, people organized and greeted each other, and for passers-by, apparently, they looked like an ordinary group of people who are busy with something of their own. The bright sun was shining, and the first good weather of the week might have also distracted the locals from what was happening.

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

For A., ​​a trans-man from a small Russian town, this Pride was the first:

“A year ago I could not have imagined that I would find myself in the center of Pride, in the center of the Russian-speaking Pride. Brighton Beach Pride was the first in my life, I am very glad that I became a part of it. “Part of the struggle for freedom, for the right of self-expression, for the right to be who you want and not hide it,” says A. “I believe that this Pride does not operate on the principle of “showing yourself, changing their minds,” the Pride says that that we exist, we live among you, and you will have to come to terms with it, even if you don’t like it.

After all, most of the Russian-speaking community does not believe that there are LGBT people among them. I think that this Pride was useful for everyone.

For community members - to show and express themselves, for viewers - to draw even the slightest conclusions from what they saw. “I hope that Brighton Pride will become an annual tradition and will be received positively by the community.”

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

Graduate student Sasha arrived in America in 2012 year. For her, the Brighton Beach Pride is first of all an event that unites people. The first thing she started to do after the move was trying to find a Russian-speaking community in New York. At first, her searches were unsuccessful:

“I found Mitap RUSA LGBT, but there were about 50 people there, and as a result I didn’t even get there, because there wasn’t any movement, there weren’t any meetings. And everything is stuck. And then people began to come, they became more and more, I crossed with one person, with another .... and I was so glad that everything was changing, and we now have a community! So when Lesha announced last year that there would be our own Brighton Pride, I thought, oh, we must go! And she went, and then she went this year too, and she is very happy about it. ”

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

Kirill from Kyrgyzstan did not hit the Brighton Beach Pride last year, but this year he came:

“Every single person participating in this Pride is part of its origins. This is only the second Pride here. Therefore, who are we if not history? And that's great! I promised myself that I had to go, finally, because I, too, am part of the community and part of this story.” Kirill loves meetings with the Russian-speaking LGBT community, but things didn’t work out with the “ordinary” community.

“I have encountered many times the type of narrow-minded Russian-speaking people, they are very aggressive, they have no understanding of people. They believe that LGBT is something bad, foreign and inhuman. They just try not to let people pass. By doing Pride in Brighton we can show these people that we are just like them.”

American Vernon, a resident of New York, has supported the Russian LGBT community since the so-called propaganda law was passed in Russia in 2013:

“Brighton Beach Pride for me is the resistance to the hypocrisy, homophobia and transphobia that still dominate living on Brighton Beach. It was a wonderful experience to go along with other allies of this Pride in order to support my LGBT brothers and sisters. ”

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

Anton (29 years), who arrived in the US from Belarus, did not go to the Brighton Beach Pride. Why? He believes that this format is inconvenient and not particularly interesting:

“Until last year, I had never visited a pride parade, and I decided that I would go to both the Brighton Beach Pride (the first, in 2017 - author’s note) and the New York Pride (which takes place in June - author’s note) and take a look “how it happens,” says Anton. – As a result, after New York Pride I was so tired that I didn’t even go to the after-party. To be honest, I don’t quite understand why all this is needed. It’s not that I’m against the idea itself, but I wouldn’t go either here or there on my own. This format - you walk and walk without any meaning - is not my thing, I prefer parties and get-togethers.”

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

It should be noted that many in the community were waiting for a more aggressive reaction to the procession.

“They will beat us,” people said. Of course, every Pride is necessarily accompanied by police, and on the eve the marshals controlling the column received special instructions on how to act in the event of attacks or provocations.

The first provocation happened even during the construction: a man passing by tried to hit the last marshal, he did not stand up for an answer ... The incident was brief, but left an unpleasant impression. Nevertheless, he was the last: in the course of the movement, instead of angry cries, laughter was mainly heard, while people waved from the windows, smiled and filmed what was happening on the mobile phone cameras. Despite the good weather and the abundance of the walkers - in contrast to the previous Pride, which passed under a drizzling rain at an almost empty boardwalk - there was no aggression.

It is noticeable that the general atmosphere has changed: at the Tatiana restaurant, where last year a certain visitor showed himself aggressively towards the Pride, crowded, if not friendly, then at least interested visitors.

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

Not everyone, however, really understood that this was gay pride, and not just a fun event. For example, pensioner Alena Evgenievna, resting on a bench, said that she was not very interested in what was happening: “I like it more when you can take a quiet walk, look at the ocean in silence. But there are always various holidays taking place here, cyclists travel, especially in the summer - there’s no crowd. And there are a lot of tourists. It would be better, of course, not to exist,” the woman shared.

A middle-aged man pushing a baby stroller refused to give his name, but said that he “heard about what’s going on” and “Trump must stop this outrage.” Not far away there is a group of men on benches. “Let them go, don’t bother anyone and don’t disturb me,” says one of them, Ivan. – I don’t think that this is abnormal or that there is a disease there. We are all human in one way or another."

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

When the march stopped, everyone surrounded the bench, which became an improvised tribune. Speakers got up to it in order to give a short speech in such “hiking” conditions.

Among those who came to support the Russian demonstrators were Sharon Kleinbaum, the chief rabbi of the liberal synagogue of the CBST, judges of the civil court of New York Elena Baron and Odessa Kennedy, Matthew McMorrow from the office of the mayor of New York.

While the invited guests were talking about freedom and equality, an elderly man walked around the perimeter of the groups of demonstrators, saying relatively friendly that he was not against gays. Nevertheless, grandfather insisted that gay people were gay, but gay marriage could not be allowed!

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

Elena Kostyuchenko, a journalist and activist from Russia, notes that as a percentage of Americans and Russian speakers, there were 50 on 50, and maybe Russian speakers, even a little less:

“It’s good that Americans are showing solidarity,” says Elena. — When I was at various meetings of activists and public figures, I often heard people talking about Russia, and that’s cool. I’m glad that judges, a rabbi, and so on came to Brighton - this is important! The guys themselves are very cool, for many this was the first action, and I think it is important to have the experience of going to the first action without the risk of getting hit in the head.”

However, not everything seemed to her rosy:

“I did not like the fact that the speeches were not translated into Russian. Brighton Beach is a Russian-speaking community, and the main point of the action was to establish contact with local residents. But many people I interviewed did not always understand what was happening, because the chants were also in English, and the older generation did not associate rainbow flags with anything. And words like queer, LGBT are not clear to them. And all the speeches were in English. So it is not entirely clear to whom the action was ultimately directed. What's more interesting is that most Pride participants have never lived in Brighton themselves. ”

Photo: Nikita Burukhin

At the very end, an adorable cat on a leash entered the crowd. Everyone liked the cat - the demonstrators stroked it with several hands at once. Hostess Lena, walking a little with her pet between the rainbow flags and slogans, smiled and said that she was sure that everything was right, at Brighton Beach Pride everything was happening the way it should happen. “People have the right to express how they want to position themselves in this world,” the woman added.

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