British activist and model Yasmin Benoit (right) was flown in to serve as the first asexual grand marshal for the New York City Pride March on Sunday (Pictures: Jessica Kwong/Metro.co.uk/Getty Images)

Wearing a purple patent leather dress, fishnets and combat boots, British activist Yasmin Benoit flashed a radiant smile as a rainbow sash was draped across her body with the words: ‘Grand Marshal 2023’.

Benoit, 27, was flown from her home in Reading to lead the New York City Pride March. Sitting on top of a convertible car, Benoit proudly held up a flag with four horizontal stripes of black, grey, white and purple.

As the 53rd Pride march kicked off to cheers at Fifth Avenue and 25th Street in Manhattan on Sunday, Benoit made history.

‘It has been absolutely incredible to be named New York Pride’s first-ever asexual grand marshal,’ Benoit told reporters shortly before the march started. As it got underway in Manhattan, Benoit told Metro.co.uk that she felt truly ‘excited’.

‘As a black asexual woman all the way over from the UK, I had no idea that I had so many supporters in the US and New York that would want to bring me out here,’ she said.

Benoit – who wears multiple hats including writer, speaker and model – said she got an email from NYC Pride informing her a vote had taken place and that she won by a landslide to be one of march’s five grand marshals.

‘It wasn’t even something that I conceived of as a possibility,’ said Benoit. ‘I’m not American, I’ve never been here before.’

But as the Benoit was driven down Fifth Avenue to Greenwich Village, past Stonewall Inn where the gay community rioted in 1969 and spurred the modern LGBTQ rights movement, it was apparent that she was popular. The cheers, and her glow, grew as she made her way through the route.

Yasmin Benoit held an asexual pride flag throughout the NYC Pride March (Picture: Shutterstock)

‘Oh my goodness it is huge,’ Benoit said of the march.

‘Parts of it are reminiscent, parts of it are quite similar to London Pride but just the atmosphere, the buildings and the history that this was where everything started – we can’t really say that in the UK.’

Among the highlights for Benoit was bonding in passing with a float of asexual people. The spectators at the NYC Pride March, which is the biggest of its kind in the US, were ‘incredibly welcoming’ and ‘so positive’, Benoit said.

‘I was seeing people screaming my name and getting emotional and I was getting emotional,’ she said.

Yasmin Benoit was presented with her grand marshal sash at a press conference shortly before the march kicked off (Picture: Jessica Kwong/Metro.co.uk)

Benoit blushed as a spectator shouted loudly as she passed by, ‘Beautiful!’

The fan, Albany resident Lavell Beaty, 53, complimented Benoit in a heartbeat though she was a complete stranger to him.

‘Beautiful is something that comes from inside, you have to grow it,’ Beaty, who is gay, told Metro.co.uk.

‘We have the same experience. Whether you’re gay, lesbian, bisexual, you grow to a point… but to be accepted where I’m at, and it’s not even acceptance, but to be at a point where I don’t care but I’m here and I’m showing myself and my authentic self – that is beauty, that is beauty.

Albany resident Lavell Beaty (second from right) called Yasmin Benoit ‘beautiful’ as she passed him during the NYC Pride March (Picture: Jessica Kwong/Metro.co.uk)

‘She’s a grand marshal…’ he continued. ‘Where was she before she was a grand marshal? She had to get from there to here and that’s the story that needs to be told.’

Benoit has been going to Pride events since she was 14 years old. She started modeling with the aim of providing more diverse representation for black women. Benoit also works as a researcher and project consultant.

She was named a board member of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network and co-founded International Asexuality Day on April 6. Benoit created the #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike movement.  

But the road to becoming a grand marshal for Benoit has not come without challenges.

It was Yasmin Benoit’s first time in New York City and its Pride march (Picture: Jessica Kwong/Metro.co.uk)

Asexual people are on the Kinsey scale, or the heterosexual–homosexual rating scale, but many people still do not recognize them as being part of the LGBTQI+ community.

‘It is still a strangely contentious thing to include asexual people in Pride, like there is a lot of discourse online about it. Some people were not happy about me being here, about me being grand marshal,’ she explained.

‘But for me, asexual people have always been part of this community, so it makes perfect sense to include us.’

Benoit at times faces additional scrutiny in being not only asexual but aromantic, meaning she does not experience sexual attraction or romantic attraction. She said she is ‘really proud to be able to be both and be included in the space’.

NYC Pride chose Strength Through Solidary as the theme for the march several months ago, when there were about 200 anti-LGBTQI+ bills in state legislatures across the country. That number has since nearly tripled, NYC Pride co-chair André Thomas told reporters ahead of the march.

‘This is our moment though to make sure that as we advocate and celebrate our community,’ said NYC Pride executive director Sandra Pérez, ‘We make sure that we attain equality for everyone in our community and not just a handful.’

Being in New York, Benoit noted, felt particularly poignant because the state’s Sexual Orientation Non-Discrimination Act that went into effect in 2003 is the only piece of legislation in the world that recognizes asexuality and protects asexual people.

‘That was actually a really central and important moment for the asexual rights moment and that really set the stage for the rest of the world to follow suit even though a lot of places haven’t yet,’ Benoit said, ‘But we’re getting there.’

Yasmin Benoit said that serving as a grand marshal for the NYC Pride March was ‘the most surreal experience of my life’ (Picture: Jessica Kwong/Metro.co.uk)

Even after making history, Benoit feels her work is not done. She plans to release her report on asexual discrimination in the UK and wants to continue campaigning for asexual rights not only at home but in the US.

But Sunday was a day that will forever be special to her.

‘In England we feel like London Pride is huge, but it’s nothing in comparison to this,’ said Benoit, encouraging fellow Brits to attend New York City’s Pride.

‘It was the most surreal experience of my life.’

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Yasmin Benoit, of Reading, served as the first-ever asexual grand marshal for the NYC Pride March.