Thousands Gather for Gay Pride Sunday

ASBURY PARK – Paradegoers filled every spot on the ledge on the Grand Avenue Bridge over Deal Lake for the Gay Pride parade Sunday.

"It's grown immensely since I first started coming in 2005. The parade is astronomical in New York City, but I think they are getting there here," said Diane Contreras, 53, of Atlantic Highlands.

The parade started on Main Street with the Jersey Pride banner "A State of Equality" leading the way, followed by the roar of groups of motorcycle clubs. Forty groups marched in the parade that wrapped around Cookman, Grand and Sunset avenues on its way to the festival grounds in front of Convention Hall.

Spectators were treated to the rhythm of marching bands, chants of "We love our LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender)," and groups decked out in Rocky Horror Picture Show garb.

"It's a totally fun day. We'll hang out in Asbury Park and party all day," said Silvia Chinchilla, 22, of Belmar, who was taking the scene in from the Main Street sidewalk.

There have been many gay pride parades in Asbury Park before. Twenty-two, to be exact. But what made this year's 23rd annual parade more meaningful to the gay community was the passage of same-sex marriage into law in New Jersey in 2013.

"I've been involved since the beginning, and you can't help but reflect back on what's happened in the past year and what's happened since the beginning, when we first started," said Jersey Pride president Laura Pople of Jackson.

Jersey Pride has been the organizer of the Asbury Park pride parade for all 23 years.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month is celebrated each year in the month of June to honor the Stonewall riots that started June 28, 1969, after a police raid at a Manhattan gay bar. Many consider that incident the tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States.

"We've come a very long way. We owe a big debt to the people who resisted police at Stonewall to really get the ball rolling," said Luisa Pastor, 66, of the Ocean Grove section of Neptune.

The first gay pride marches began the summer after Stonewall in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Today, gay pride marches are a worldwide event.

"It took a lot of civil disobedience, hard work, marching and organizing to get to where we are today," Pastor said.

Pastor and her spouse, Harriet Bernstein, butted heads with the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association in 2007 after their request to have a Civil Union at the boardwalk pavilion was declined. The American Civil Liberties Union represented them in their legal fight and they prevailed.

"We had our Civil Union on the fishing pier," Bernstein said.

Last year the two took the next step and legally married. Many of the several thousand people who marched or attended the parade Sunday had marriage stories to tell.

"We've taken every step. We got the domestic partnership, civil union, and we got married," said Steve Powers-Hill, 55, of Asbury Park about he and his spouse Jim's climb to equality.

Dan Radel: 732-643-4072; dradel@app.com

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