'This is about being truly who you are in public. You'd be passing some industrial buildings trying not to look gay, while in reality, you are going to a gay club - all that un-freedom, all those feelings of trying to hide who you are when you are in public,' Zalutski says. 'I just remember my impressions from going to a gay club in Minsk or in Moscow.
A year later, they are scrambling to collect the money and finish preparations for what will be the parade's first-ever Russian and ex-Soviet float. He and a group of gay and lesbian friends, all from the former Soviet Union, decided to do something that he says would be 'impossible' back home. While attending the parade last year that message, carried on the rhythms of dance music, resonated loudly enough to spur him into action. The parade's message has long resonated with Pasha Zalutski, a 31-year-old native of Belarus who won the U.S. Here, flamboyance is offered as a response to hiding and intolerance.
This is the city's famous gay-pride parade - a raucous procession of floats, dancers, community groups, and tens of thousands of onlookers. Each June, the streets of New York City are flooded by a sea of glitter, beads, and boas.
