In Asbury Park, gays show their pride
Crowd braves rain for annual parade
BY JONATHAN CASIANO, Star-Ledger from the Web, June 7, 2004
Asbury Park, NJ -- The skies might have been stormy, but there was a rainbow over Asbury Park yesterday as several thousand people came out to celebrate the shore town's 13th annual Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade.
From leather-clad bikers to scantily clad drag queens, demure grandmothers in cardigans to Mohawked teens in punk rock T-shirts, all walks of life were on hand to cheer the marchers on Grand Avenue and enjoy live folk performances in Bradley Park.
Not letting the steady drizzle and cold ocean breeze put a damper on the festivities, older couples snuggled on lawn blankets and young singles mingled around coolers while vendors offered up everything from rainbow wind chimes to funnel cakes.
"It makes me wish I could go back in time," said Steve Dovido, a 54-year-old state worker from Trenton who remembers the days when such open celebrations of homosexuality could not be found in New Jersey.
"You name the orientation, I'm sure you'll find it here. The diversity is magnificent."
James Taylor, a 50-year-old salesman from Asbury Park who has been attending the parade since its first year, said it has helped bring the town together, pointing out that "just because someone is here doesn't mean they're gay."
"These type of events are good for the community because they allow everyone to interact with the gay population in their community," said Taylor, a member of the Argonauts, a local leather organization.
"It's a sign that people are adjusting to and accepting the gay community as a part of the whole."
With the question of gay marriage shaping up to be a wedge issue in November's presidential election, political overtones swept across this year's celebration with groups like the Task Force for Same Sex Marriage hosting booths and floats carrying slogans such as "Civil Marriage is a Civil Right."
"As long as we remain quiet about what we want, we'll never have what everyone else has," said Elizabeth Braun, who marched with a float sponsored by the Gay Activist Alliance of Morris County that featured a giant wedding cake flanked by mannequins dressed as same-sex couples exchanging vows.
"This is keeping us visible because if we're quiet no one will know."
The issue is certainly visible in Asbury Park, which became the first municipality in New Jersey to sanction a same-sex marriage when Mayor James Bruno performed a city hall ceremony for local antique store owners Ric Best and Louis Navarrete on March 8.
The city was ordered by state Attorney General Peter Harvey to stop performing such ceremonies and has since filed suit in state Superior Court in Monmouth County to clarify the state's marriage statute.
The seashore city has long been a mecca for gay and lesbian couples who first came in the 1970s for the clubs and bars along the boardwalk and stayed for the reasonably priced houses just waiting to be fixed up along the town's tree-lined side streets.
Mr. Gay USA Rafael Matthews said he participates in events like yesterday's parade in cities across the country, and said that even some of the biggest cities can't draw a crowd like the one that braved the rain in Asbury Park.
"It's wonderful. There's definitely a lot of good energy and the people really want to be here," said Matthews, who rode on the parade's largest float.
"For a little town, it's really a big parade."
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