Princeton’s 2nd Pride Parade & After-Party was everything our community needed & deserved it to be, as meaningful as it was fabulous & as inspirational as it was exponential
Thanx to the thousands who came out & marched, sashayed, & rolled up the beautiful Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood & then were all at once empowered & entertained at the wonderful After-Party!
Words cannot express the ever-present LOVE we all shared so please enjoy just a small samplin' of this extraordinary day...
Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice
PRINCETON PRIDE '22
A Celebration of Community
PARADE & AFTER-PARTY
Saturday June 18th
March in Solidarity 11AM Princeton Municipal Building 400 Witherspoon Street
Dance in Celebration Princeton YMCA Paul Robeson Place
Join the inspirational & utterly fabulous Princeton Pride Parade Grand Marshal
ALAN MURAOKA
Proprietor of Hooper's Store on “Sesame Street” as well as an extraordinary actor & director in his own right appearing on television & the Broadway stage & GLAAD Media Award winner for the Sesame Street "Family Day" episode which introduced the first family to include two gay dads
“I am beyond thrilled & honored to act as Grand Marshal of the BRCSJ Princeton Pride Parade. On Sesame Street we try to teach tolerance, acceptance, & love, & I am inspired by the mission & vision of all the good folks at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, who are teaching the same values. Can't wait to march with them & tell all our friends & fam how to get, how to get, how to get to Princeton Pride!"
In 2019, the BRCSJ organized Princeton's 1st-ever Pride Parade with over 3,000 folx in the streets & then over the pandemic years in ’20 & '21 shared community with over 25,000 viewers at the Center’s international Virtual Pride events featuring Billy Porter, Tituss Burgess, Billie Jean King, Sam Sparro, Jill Sobule, Sampson McCormick, Luis & Bob from Sesame St. & más y más!
Now in 2022 we are back on the streets in celebration of community together again after too long apart~
You ain't seen nothin' yet!
“We invite all to join us as our LGBTQIA community & their friends, allies, & families (chosen or otherwise) march, dance, roll, stroll, & sashay through the historic Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood to end up at the fabulous after-party at the Princeton Y…What better way to walk the walk (both literally & figuratively) of inclusivity & intersectionality than to bring together all of our beautifully diverse folx in Princeton & in the greater community!” ~ BRCSJ Chief Activist Robt Martin Seda-Schreiber
The event also features~
Parade Queen “Miss Stonewall Inn” Cissy Walken
Flag-Bearers Gabriella & Rose inspirational young members of the BRCSJ family
Gabriella who serves as BRCSJ Queer Youth Advocacy Community Liaison delineates the meaningfulness of her participation~
“We all have a home here at the Center, a safe space to learn & grow & celebrate all that we are. I was a broken child when I started getting involved with this community. Now I am a strong, confident, proud, young woman. I am so grateful to be able to stand here today, as my whole true self, & I cannot wait to now carry the BRCSJ flag at this extraordinary Pride event!”
Further representing at Princeton Pride ’22~
BRCSJ Board Member Michelle Elizabeth Brown, poet & activist from Detroit, who will share remarks on the stage in honor of Juneteenth
“As a Black queer woman it is especially significant on the eve of Juneteenth, under the banner of the BRCSJ and the intersectionality implicit in our very mission, we celebrate Pride here in Princeton. As an African-American, Rustin fought against the injustice of racism while also living under the veil of homophobia. This year we not only celebrate community but we do such acknowledging that one March, one holiday, doesn’t end the work, it only inspires us to carry-on!”
Erin Worrell, Trans-Activist & BRCSJ Board President
“In a year that has seen a tremendous increase in attacks on the safety and wholeness of trans and queer youth, I'm thrilled that Princeton Pride is back in person so we can celebrate in joy and community together. I can't wait to see everyone out on Witherspoon Street again."
Pride Puppets who celebrate 50 years of LGBTQIA history with 10-foot tall puppets of movement activist heroes
BRCSJ Board Member Glen Pannell (who will bring his hot pants out of retirement to show he hasn’t missed a leg day since his time as everyone’s fave faux Vice Prez Mike Hot-Pence)
Maplewood’s first openly gay Mayor Dean Dafis (another BRCSJ Board Member!)
“Our PRIDE is rooted in our continuous struggle, celebrated in our advances, evidenced in our local impact. I’m very proud of our significant local impact in the last couple years as we have expanded our services to community and broadened our reach nationally.” NJSenator Andrew Zwicker
Princeton Mayor Mark Freda
Fabulous Queer Icons Chet Kabara & Frank Mahood (co-founder of Gay People Princeton), who have been present at Pride events for decades in matching rainbow outfits
Philadelphia Freedom Band
& más y más!
Dr. Peniel E. Joseph
Black Power Scholar & Author & BRCSJ Board Vice-President sez~
“So excited about the new space that the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice has created in Princeton. We look forward to continuing to advocate for and help build a world that is just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive. The search for intersectional justice is at the cornerstone of the Rustin Center’s efforts to create a society that is free of violence, exclusion, and dehumanization of Trans, Queer, Black, Brown, Indigenous, LatinX, Asian-American and Pacific Islander, and white communities in America and around the world. The assaults on the rights of Trans Communities, the suppression of voting rights, bans on the teaching of racism and histories of discrimination and colonialism and anti-Semitism and genocide are all connected. We are committed to telling holistic narratives about ourselves and our history to the widest range of publics possible. Bayard Rustin’s indefatigable commitment to achieving justice for all continues into 2022 and this extraordinary Pride Parade is both a literal and figurative step in that direction.”
Much love & respect to
Bristol Myers Squibb
New Jersey Education Association
Leonard-Litz Foundation
Penn Medicine Princeton Health
& viewers like YOU
for support & kindness
toward our Center & Princeton PRIDE '22!