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A family-friendly Gay Pride 2012 – Metro US

A family-friendly Gay Pride 2012

Expect to see lots of families out celebrating Gay Pride 2012 this weekend, at a time when more gay and lesbian New Yorkers than ever are becoming parents.

And Pride organizers are taking note: NYC Pride, along with Target, hosted the first-ever Family Movie Night Wednesday evening, where “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” was screened in Hudson River Park.

This is the first year that there has been an event for kids and families during Pride Week.

The fact that this month marks the one-year anniversary of when gay marriage became legal in New York State only adds to the celebratory mood.

“I don’t think of it as the same this year,” Anthony Brown, executive director of The Wedding Party, said to Metro. Brown lives in the West Village with his husband and son. “We won the right to marry, so this year it’s really a celebration whereas the other years it has always felt like we were fighting for something.”

The number of same-sex couples who adopt has tripled in the past decade, according U.S. Census data analyzed by the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law at UCLA Law School.

In 2009, nearly 20 percent of same-sex couples adopted a child, up from just eight percent in 2000, according to The New York Times.

“The wonderful, flamboyant drag queens have always been a part of the celebration,” Brown said of New York’s gay pride parade. “But now, that includes families too.”

Most of this weekend’s gay pride events are open to all ages: The only over 21 events are the Rapture on the River Dance on Saturday and the Dance on the Pier on Sunday. The biggest part of Pride, the Sunday parade through the West Village, is open to all.

After years of being told they could never marry or have kids, today’s gay community is embracing the fact that they too can be moms and dads, said Brown.

“We’re not as different as we used to be,” he said. “The stereotype has changed because now we’re truly celebrating something.”