Pride, But Just For Young People: First Ever Brooklyn Youth Pride

BROOKLYN, NY — Organizing a youth-focused Pride event in Brooklyn has been on Cam Moore's mind for a while, but it wasn't until this year that the longtime Brooklyn Pride volunteer and board member felt moved to action.

"We just wanted a way for the kids to smile and have a good time without dealing with all the stress and negativity coming from Florida and Texas," said Moore, alluding to the wave of anti-LGBTQ bills filed this year, many of which target LGBTQ youth, especially those who are transgender and nonbinary.

"We're in a state where you're loved and celebrated as an LGBTQIA+ person, so we wanted to make the extra push to remind young people of that this year."

From that extra effort, Youth Pride Brooklyn was born. The first-of-its-kind event organized by Brooklyn Pride will take place from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday in Park Slope — the day after the non-profit's signature Pride festival and parade.

Young people are welcome at both events, Moore specified, but Youth Pride is — by design — a space exclusively for LGBTQIA+ youth and allies ages 13 to 20.

"We worked with kids to plan the event," Moore said. "I wanted to try and stay on trend with what the kids would actually want to see at an event like this."

With the help of her daughter, and a team of volunteers, Moore and Brooklyn Pride reached out to over 120 middle and high schools across the borough in order to gauge young peoples' interest in the event and get input.

The group also organized a virtual session with some LGBTQ student clubs and crafted the day's slate of events with young peoples' input.

"That's how we got the idea for voter registration," Moore said. "Students said they wanted to be able to be a part of the process and make sure there's a way that's easier to vote. I was surprised! Now we're going to have a tablet set up with help from Rock the Vote."

Sunday's block party-style event on Sackett Street between Third and Fourth Avenues will also include carnival games, a youth lounge (sponsored by Vitamin Water) and DJ set. The event is free, but registration (and proof of school or state ID), is required.

At about 3:30 p.m., Youth Pride will transition indoors to Littlefield, an event venue on the same street, where young people will put on a performance followed by a kiki ball, a youth-focused part of the ballroom scene that also originated from the Black and Latinx LGBTQ community.

While this is Brooklyn Pride's first-ever Youth Pride, Moore hopes it won't be the group's last.

"We're excited to be able to do this, and already hoping it'll happen again next year," she said.

"These are the future kids of our community so hopefully they will end up being Brooklyn Pride volunteers as they get older, too."

Find out more about Brooklyn Pride, including Youth Pride, here. Register for Youth Pride here.