In the early years of Brighton Beach Pride — and as recently as 2021 — Russian Flags and Rainbow Flags were held up together near the lead banner as queer marchers and allies made their way from Coney Island to Brighton Beach along the Riegelmann Boardwalk.
Southern Brooklyn, after all, is home to many eastern European immigrants, many of them Russian speakers, and the LGBTQ community in that part of the borough needed a place to call home. An organization named RUSA LGBT, which was later renamed to RUSA LGBTQ+, was responsible for producing Brighton Beach Pride, which was first held in 2017.
RUSA LGBTQ+ was created as a group of queer Russian speakers and immigrants from parts of the former Soviet Union, and it always brought themes of resistance to Brighton Beach Pride, especially when it came to denouncing Russia’s increasingly anti-LGBTQ policies and the enduring homophobia of Russian President Vladimir Putin. (An oft-repeated chant in recent years has been “Putin is a war criminal!”) Queer refugees who fled Russia were among those who participated and even led the march.
However, in the aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Brighton Beach Pride took on a more intentionally pro-Ukrainian focus, with marchers collectively standing in solidarity with Ukraine.
With that shift also came a moment of reflection, of sorts, for RUSA LGBTQ+. The organization’s name led some people to perceive it as a Russian-centric organization. To that end, the organization decided to change its name to Qaravan, which has eastern European and Asian influences and is intended to be a more inclusive name that could also be easier to understand for American audiences. Qaravan’s website describes the organization as a “community-based, non-profit organization of Eurasian LGBTQ+ people, women, and other people with intersectional identities and their allies.”
“Like a queer caravan — it’s a little campy, friendly, and playful, but it also does align with the current tendencies in the American progressive queer movement,” said Maxim Ibadov, a queer Moscow native who serves as a coordinator for Qaravan and has led the Brighton Beach Pride March for the last several years.
“Since Russia became the epicenter of homophobic terrorism, and with the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we just realized that having Russian in the name is quite honestly toxic,” Ibadov said. “It is triggering to a lot of people who come from countries that are being actively harmed by Russia’s — and Vladimir Putin’s — regime.”
Now, heading into the ninth annual edition of Brighton Beach Pride on May 10, members are preparing for the first-ever pride under the rebranded organization. This year, Ibadov said, marchers will focus on standing up for the rights of transgender individuals and immigrants in the face of threats not just in eastern Europe or other parts of the world, but also here in the United States, where President Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted transgender individuals and immigrants.
In a striking sign of the times, Qaravan’s leadership had internal conversations and concluded that they would tell members who “don’t have a green card and/or passport — or if their case is still pending — this may be the march to sit out,” Ibadov said, citing concerns about safety at a time when the Trump administration has aggressively moved to ramp up deportations.
“This year, we are hoping to attract folks who may not be as in jeopardy as much compared to people who usually come,” Ibadov said. “We have folks who come from Russia, Ukraine, and other places where we saw how democracy slides backward. We can’t capitulate and we can’t cancel pride. We have to be aware and acknowledge the realities and steer our community in a way that doesn’t feel like we are capitulating, because we are not.”
The neighborhoods of Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay, and Manhattan Beach are widely considered to be conservative bastions and voted overwhelmingly for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. At past Brighton Beach Pride events, spectators reacted with shock and awe as they watched the parade march down the boardwalk in an otherwise sleepy part of the city.
“Brighton Beach Pride is a political march; it’s not a commercial pride or a celebration of joy,” Ibadov explained. “It’s not a party. If you want to come and see what the original Pride March might have felt like, come to Brighton Beach Pride.”
Regardless of the rebranded leadership, Brighton Beach Pride remains largely the same. Marchers will gather 11 a.m. on May 10 at the usual spot: on the boardwalk in Coney Island where the boardwalk intersects with Polar Bear Club Walk.
At noon, marchers will head east along the boardwalk for about one mile before stopping where the boardwalk meets the Shorefront Y in Brighton Beach. From there, attendees will gather for a rally featuring speeches by community members and guests.
An after-party will take place following the rally, though details have yet to be released.
This story first appeared on Brooklyn Paper’s sister site Gay City News.
