Rockaway’s First Pride Celebration
Peninsula’s LGBTQ community enjoys a day of fun in the sun
The OutRockaway team had a blast at the fi rst-ever Pride celebration in the Rockaways.
BY MATT TRACY
Who said Pride was
over?
The LGBTQ
community in the
Rockaways made history on July
13 with the peninsula’s fi rst-ever
Pride celebration.
OutRockaway, an LGBTQ organization
encompassing the
Rockaways and surrounding
Queens neighborhoods, partnered
with the Joseph P. Addabbo
Family Health Center to
host to a four-hour block party
complete with music and a DJ,
health-related resources, giveaways,
food, and refreshments.
Numerous community groups
were on hand at booths sprinkled
around the event.
The Pride festivities at 6200
Beach Channel Drive were scheduled
to begin at 11 a.m., but people
couldn’t contain their excitement
about the festivities: They
started showing up at 10 a.m. on
what was a warm, sunny Saturday.
After it was over, folks stuck
around and continued partying
on the beach.
“It was really successful,” Out-
Rockaway’s executive director,
Jim Burke, told Gay City News.
“It was lots of fun.”
Several elected offi cials also
stopped by, including Attorney
General Tish James, Assmemblymember
Stacey Pheffer Amato,
out gay Councilmember Jimmy
Van Bramer of Queens, who
is running for borough president,
and Councilmember Donovan
Richards, whose Queens district
includes Far Rockaway.
OutRockaway, which consisted
of about 140 people heading into
the July 13 event, has made inroads
with the community since
the organization’s inception in
2015. The group has participated
in the local police precinct’s cookoff,
they’ve held library events,
beach parties, and they’ve gone
bowling, among other activities.
“We noticed there was no LGBTQ
awareness in Rockaways,”
Burke said of the group’s original
formation. “The people that
we knew were gay were either in
the closet or took the A train over
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OUTROCKAWAY
an hour to go to a doctor or go to
a bar or club to socialize.”
The team at OutRockaway
wanted to take things a step further.
In the time leading up to
the Pride event, they met with
the Addabbo Family Health Center
with hopes of establishing a
Pride celebration that could benefi
t the community while simultaneously
showing queer folks
health resources available to
them.
“It was a really terrifi c, productive
meeting,” Burke recalled.
Soon enough, they scheduled the
fi rst-ever Pride celebration in the
Rockaways.
Rockaway Pride went so well
that the group is not only planning
to hold yet another celebration,
but they’re expecting it to be
even larger in 2020. The group’s
membership grew at the event
and several vendors reached out
to OutRockaway expressing their
desire to join in on the fun next
year.
“It surpassed out dreams,”
Burke said. “For our fi rst time
out, we were really happy.”
GayCityNews.com | July 18 - July 31, 2019 35
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