Portraits of Pride: New York City Edition

The Advocate: What do you love most about Pride in NYC?
Josy:"Everyone respecting and accepting everybody and their sexuality!"

Leo Gutierrez: "My favorite part about Pride is that we're all here, you get this family feeling, and you get to express who you are! It's awesome!"

Lucy Balls: "The community aspect. It's really great to have a day where you really feel proud of being gay. Sometimes throughout the year you can feel down. A sense of community and coming together and celebrating being a queer person is really great."

The Advocate: Who has been the strongest ally in your life?
Balls: "My mom. I feel like everybody says that, but my mom is really supportive. She understood and always supported me even through the hard times."

The Advocate: What is your favorite part about pride?
Kira Kazantsev, Miss New York: "Pride is a time when everyone can come together and celebrate how amazing all of these people are and how amazing the culture is. I love being a part of it!"

What makes you proudest to be a New Yorker?
"Look around us! The groups here, the costumes, just the camaraderie is fantastic. I'm so proud to represent it as Miss New York. This is my constituency and I couldn't be more proud."

The Advocate: What makes you most proud?
Jean-Mary: "I'm proud of who I am. I'm proud of feeling comfortable in my skin. I'm proud of myself. I'm proud of being me. This is my first time in the parade. But I always love the color, all the energy here. It's my first time partaking; I'm a little nervous but we'll see what happens! I'm excited!"

The Advocate: Is this your first pride?
Abby Feinberg-Rowe: "This isn't our first pride. But my first pride was New Hampshire Pride in 2003. It was a pride AIDS Walk in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I was just a baby dyke and I didn't really know what I was doing but it was a lot of fun. But this year really has been my favorite Pride so far."

What makes you proud to be a New Yorker?
Lani Feinberg-Rowe: "The diversity. The will to live. It takes a lot of will to live here."

And how did you two meet?
Abby: We met on OKCupid.com.
Lani: We are an OKCupid success story
Abby: We were married in October of 2012. We got married legally here in New York, and then we had a huge party in Mexico!

The Advocate: Is this your first Pride?
Dennis Necsary: "This is my fourth pride with Cheer New York! We are cheerleaders for charity. I cheered in high school, loved it and then did it in college. It's a great way to stay athletic and gain about 50 best friends."

What makes you proud to be a New Yorker?
Dennis Necsary: "New York City is a melting pot. Everyone is welcomed, especially today. It's super fun and I'm never bored."

The Advocate: What was your first NYC Pride experience like?
Marcelo Abramovich, Trent Kirkpatrick: "Six years ago. It was so great. Liberating, freedom, and very exciting!"

The Advocate: What's your favorite part of Pride?
Aimee Cucchiaro, Nick Nerio, Rebecca Atwood, Henry Bergstein, Ryan Holmes, Noah Sparkman, Jacob Perkins:"RAINBOWS!"

Photography by Michelle Kinney