Queens Borough Hall is all decked out for Pride Month.
Borough President Melinda Katz, in conjunction with Queens Pride, commissioned the first-ever installation of the rainbow Pride flags in front of the building on the eve of LGBTQIA+ Month. The flags representLGBTQIA+ movement and will remain on display throughout the month of June in honor of Pride Month and in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion of 1969, which served as a catalyst for the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world.
“The Borough of Queens is unabashedly Pride, all day, every day,” Katz said. “During LGBTQIA+ Pride Month and throughout the year, let us be loud, vocal, united and relentless both in celebration of Pride and in our universal push for inclusion, equality and justice.”
The installation of the flags comes three days before Sunday’s 27th annual Queens Pride Parade and Festival which draws tens of thousands to Jackson Heights each year. The parade steps off at noon along 37th Avenue starting at 89th Street and concluding at 75th Street where singers, comedians, drag acts and dance groups will perform.
The parade was co-founded by City Councilman Daniel Dromm when he was a community organizer in 1993 following the brutal murder of Julio Rivera, a 29-year-old gay man who was attackedby a three-man “hunting party” from a skinhead gang that sparked the rise of organizations such as Ed Sedarbaum’s Queens Gay and Lesbians United and Dromm’s Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee.
“Pride Month is not only a celebration of individuality, but progress and achievements towards equal rights,” Queens Pride President Tina Arniotis said. “Queens Pride is proud of its achievement along with the Queens Borough President to display the Rainbow Flag in front of Borough Hall for the Month of Pride, especially as New York hosts WorldPride this year. As the first borough to kick-off the official Pride Month we are honored to be the first borough to wave the Pride Flag.”
Katz will host her annual Pride Month Celebration with Dromm and City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer on Wednesday, June 19, at 5:30 p.m. Anyone interested in attending the Borough Hall event is encouraged to RSVP at queensbp.org/rsvp or call 718-286-2661.
