Two New York Fire Department workers got engaged at Pride, and it was amazing
Trudy Bermudez and Tayreen Bonilla just after getting engaged (Kena Betancur/Getty)
Thousands of people enjoyed New York City Pride this weekend – but two attendees celebrated in a particularly special way.
In the middle of the parade, Trudy Bermudez got down on one knee, looked her partner Tayreen Bonilla in the eye, and popped the question.
Bermudez, an emergency medical technician for the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), didn’t have to wait long, as FDNY paramedic Tayreen Bonilla quickly said yes.
Trudy Bermudez proposes to Tayreen Bonilla (Kena Betancur/Getty)
And their beautiful proposal was captured on camera for all to see.
Everyone deserves happiness, but the couple, who work together in FDNY Station 43, had earned their moment of joy
more than most.
In the middle of FDNY’s Instagram post congratulating the pair, the account revealed that Bermudez and Bonilla helped save the life of Ken Taskent, who was at a classic car event in Brooklyn when he had a seizure, stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest.
Pride parades celebrate love, so perhaps it’s not surprising that their attendees are often treated to tear-jerking proposals.
In 2016, Ann Jones, 47, took to the stage at Liverpool Pride to pop the question to her girlfriend, 32-year-old Emma Baldry.
Ann said: “I wanted my home city to know how much Emma means to me, so thought I’d take the opportunity whilst she was on stage in front of many of our friends.”
Bermudez puts an engagement ring on her new fiancée’s finger (Kena Betancur/Getty)
And Emma said: “I am overwhelmed, it’s still sinking in I think. I was totally shocked to see Ann appear on the stage behind me. She has definitely made me the happiest girl at Pride today.”
Last year at Pride in London, Corporal Damian Dagg, 30, proposed to his military boyfriend Josh Thorne a year after meeting him at the parade.
The Army medic walked out from the assembled troops from all three branches of the armed forces and beckoned Thorne, who plays in the Army Medical Services Band, to join him before getting down on one knee.
The newly engaged couple embrace (Kena Betancur/Getty)
At the same march, Kings Cross Steelers rugby player Fernando Ferreira stepped away from his team and walked over to the barrier, where he locked eyes with his boyfriend Greg Woodford and popped the question.
And as if that wasn’t enough, two women – Jane and Dizzy – got engaged as well, with the heartwarming moment when Jane proposed captured on video and shared on the British Transport Police Twitter account.
New York City’s Pride parade, which first took place in 1970, has grown to become one of the largest in the US, with hundreds of groups marching and more than 100 floats.
People take part in the annual 2018 New York City Pride Parade (TIMOTHY A. CLARY /AFP/Getty)
This year’s event was Grand Marshalled by LGBT activists from Lambda Legal and OutRight International, as well as out tennis player Billie Jean King and agender advocate Tyler Ford.
The theme for this year’s march was ‘Defiantly Different,’ which organisers say “speaks to the breadth of the LGBTQ+ community as a unified people and our tenacious individuality.”
