Johnell Pannell (Unsplash)
June 14, 2020 By Michael Dorgan
A virtual celebration to mark Pride Month in Queens will take place Thursday.
Acting Queens Borough President Sharon Lee will host the online event via the video-conferencing application Zoom on June 18 at 2:00 p.m.
The event will celebrate the LGBTQ community who typically put on parades and marches across the nation every June. Many physical LGBTQ events, like the Queens Pride parade, were canceled this year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
City council members Danny Dromm–who helped start the Queens Pride Parade in 1993–and Jimmy Van Bramer will co-host the event.
Lee said the officials want to continue the tradition of celebrating the history of Pride and the passion of the LGBTQ community.
“Queens is unabashedly Pride, all day and every day,” Lee said.
The online event will feature a performance by entertainer Miss LCA and music by DJ Miss Hap. A message from actor John Leguizamo will be streamed along with a tribute to members of the LGBTQ community who died from COVID-19.
The event will also include a discussion about the impact COVID-19 has had on the LGBTQ community. A panel made up of members of the Caribbean Equality Project, the LGBT Network, Out Rockaway and Queens Pride will host the talk.
Organizers have posted a short online film about a local trans-Latinx activist as a pre-cursor to the event. The 11-minute movie, which is up at on the Queens Borough President’s website, focuses on former Jackson Heights resident Lorena Borjas, who died from COVID-19 on March 30.
Residents who would like to participate in the Zoom stream are asked to register before June 17 by clicking this link
A public live stream of the event will also be available at www.queensbp.org.
LGBTQIA+ Pride Month Poster
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