Long Island Pride Parade brings thousands to Huntington

Thousands marched, cheered and reveled on Huntington’s Main Street Sunday as the annual Long Island Pride Parade returned to where it began in 1991.

The 33rd parade featured floats, marchers and representatives of more than 85 organizations and businesses. Students, teachers and law enforcement officers, among others, marched down Main Street to Heckscher Park. They waved Pride flags and balloons to the cheers of spectators decorated in rainbow-colored pinwheels, shirts and skirts.

Fable Denonn, a plumber who lives in Medford and works in Huntington, walked down the street with friends. Denonn, who came out on Transgender Remembrance Day in 2016, said the parade gives her the space to feel safe.

“To be able to experience these things gives me that sense of safety and that sense of purpose that I'm a part of something bigger than just me feeling alone,” she said. “It feels good. It feels like home.”

The parade was held in Huntington until 2016, when it moved to Long Beach. It returned in full last year to Farmingdale after pandemic disruptions.

“It feels good to come home to the birthplace of Long Island Pride,” said David Kilmnick, president and CEO of the LGBT Network, which organizes the event.

The return to its original home, where it once took a lawsuit to grant organizers the permit to hold the festival, sent a message of not taking things for granted, Kilmnick said. He cited the hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatures across the country this year. As of Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union is tracking 491 anti-LGBTQ bills nationwide.

In 1991, the Suffolk County chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union sued Huntington on behalf of the Lesbian/Gay Pride & Freedom Committee in U.S. District Court after the town rejected a request for parade permits. Town officials said it had a custom of granting permits only for three parades: Memorial Day, St. Patrick's Day and Columbus Day.

The committee challenged the town's decision, and a permit was granted as the result of a settlement, according to Newsday archives.

“Pride matters,” Kilmnick said. “Pride is one of the most important things that we could do to come out to be visible, to support one another [and] to spread love.”

Over the past three decades, the parade grew in size and corporate presence, said Christian Limbach of East Northport, who also attended the third annual parade in Huntington in 1993.

“It’s bigger. More people are attending. Spectators. Marchers,” he said. Now, “everything has changed for the better.”

Dezi Vega and her wife, Kayla Aguirlar, of Queens, said they saw positive change that is reflective of a growing community.

There have been “more people, more meaningful messages,” Vega said. “They talk to you about other agencies. [Resources] for AIDS, cancer and help hotline[s].”

The parade also drew politicians and the police commissioners from both Nassau and Suffolk counties.

The parade's grand marshals were comic and TV personality Ross Mathews, who is married to Wellinthon García-Mathews, director of curriculum and instruction for Elmont schools, and Sarah Ecke, a math teacher at Connetquot High School.

Last fall, Ecke refused to take down Pride flags in her classroom and the district issued a directive banning all flags except the American and state flags, citing a district policy that said employees should not engage in political activities in school.

District officials at the time said they acted in response to students’ complaints. LGBTQ supporters have since called for the district to reverse its decision.

“I feel extremely privileged and excited because I get to represent the community,” Ecke said Sunday before the parade. “I’m glad to be part of this community. There’s love and support everywhere. All different types of people coming together — it's the best thing you could ask for.”

Michele Cipriano, a member of Mt. Sinai Congregational Church, UCC, said it’s important to show up at Pride events.

“We need each other. We've come a long way. We still have a lot of work to do,” said Cipriano, of Rocky Point. “That's what this is about. We're willing to do that work and do it peacefully and with love.”

By Dandan Zou

dandan.zou@newsday.com@DandanZou

Dandan Zou covers education for Newsday. Previously, she worked for a community newspaper in Maryland and a personal finance magazine in Washington, D.C.