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World and NY 2019 Pride Commemorations and Celebrations
These Pride pages are produced by the Community Justice Ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island

Pride Events Calendar - June 2 to 30, 2019

Please visit these regional pages for further information:
MANHATTAN       BROOKLYN       QUEENS       LONG ISLAND

Now thru 5 JUN - Sayville, ​LGBTQIA Art Expo
2 SUN - Noon to 6 pm - Jackson Heights - Queens Pride Parade and Festival
     > Click here for meetup information on the Queens region page.
2 SUN - 11:30 am - Sayville - Equality March and Pride Picnic
​     > Click here for posters and info about additional June events sponsored by TRCLI
​
The Transgender Resource Center of Long Island
5 WED - 7 pm - Sayville - Stonewall 50 and the Women Who Sparked a Movement
6 THU - 7 pm - Bohemia, NYH - Big Queer Karaoke Night
7 FRI - 8 pm - Long Island Gay Men's Chorus at Cathedral of the Incarnation
​8 SAT - 10 am - ​5K Pride Run in Prospect Park
8 SAT - 11 am to 5 pm -  Brooklyn - ​Multi-Cultural Festival
8 SAT - 7:30 pm - Brooklyn Pride Twilight Parade (Line up by 6:30 pm)
​9 SUN - 3:30 pm - "Spirit of Stonewall" - ​Major Event
​Free Admission - ​St. Ann & the Holy Trinity - Pro Cathedral, Brooklyn Heights   
​     > Click here to see the official news release
       > Click here to see the official "Spirit of Stonewall" poster
       > Click here to see PHOTOS from the "Spirit of Stonewall" event
​9 SUN - 7 pm - Long Island Gay Men's Chorus​​ at St. John's, Huntington
​15 SAT to 26 WED - Long Beach - Long Island Pride / Worldwide Pride 2019

>> 23 SUN - Noon to 2 - Long Beach Parade, Broadway from Lafayette Blvd. to Long Beach Blvd.

30 SUN - 10 am - Manhattan - ​​​Queer Liberation March and Rally -  Stepping off at 10 am from the Stonewall Inn, going up Sixth Avenue to Central Park for a community-focused Rally on the Great Lawn.
>> 30 SUN - Noon to evening​ ​- The Manhattan Stonewall
Pride Parade and local churches hospitality

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The History
By Mother Marie A. Tatro

The history of the Stonewall Uprising is not merely "gay history," it is a key moment in American history. And, further, its reach has touched communities far beyond our borders. 

June 2019 marks 50 years since the NYC Stonewall Uprising, a pivotal moment that sparked a global movement for civil rights for LGBTQ people. 

Violent beatings and murders of "the queers" were commonplace. Homosexuality was illegal, and this perfectly natural variance in human nature that has existed as long as we have walked the earth was criminalized and demonized (and tragically, in some countries, still is). 

After decades of police raids at gay establishments that destroyed people's lives and reputations, in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, patrons at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village -- many of whom were transgender, non-binary/gender non-conforming, and drag queens and kings -- fought back.

There was much violence and bloodshed. The riots lasted for six days. But, it is widely recognized as one of the first, big seismic shifts in the LGBTQ movement in this country, and since then has been commemorated annually around the world. 

Why Individuals and the Church Commemorate Stonewall 

One of the ways that we commemorate the Stonewall Uprising across the globe is with annual marches and parades that cause us to reflect and remember how it all started. 

I went to my first LGBTQ Pride march in NYC (Manhattan) at the age of 19, in 1980, and I attended almost every year after that.

The Pride march has evolved over the years and was very different then than it is today. For the first 15-20 years of my participation and witness, the march was hardest when we passed St. Patrick's Cathedral. There, scores of people behind the barricades held up hateful signs, spit on us, threw objects, called us sick, and said we were damned to hell: all with the tacit approval of the Church, and the allegiance and protection of the police.

Every year I looked into their eyes and was bewildered and saddened by the hate and violence directed at us. 

For lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender people -- and their allies, families and friends who supported us -- the Church was not a sanctuary. From where we stood, it was a place that sought to hurt and destroy us. 

Of course, over these years, the climate here in New York City has shifted considerably: the counter-demonstrators have dwindled, organizations of gay police officers and firefighters march along side us, and many more faith-based organizations participate (including the Episcopal Dioceses of Long Island and New York).

But hundreds of LGBTQ people from all corners of our City and our diocese continue to feel unsafe, and the memory of those early days for some of us is still a present reality for many in our communities, especially among our young people.

A brighter future revealed itself early on for me. On that day in 1980, when I was still a teenager, I saw ​"Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays" (PFLAG) carrying signs like "I love my gay son," and "My lesbian daughter is a precious child of God," and I wept.  

The other groups that filled me with hopeful tears were the religious organizations marching proudly with their gay and straight parishioners and clergy, proclaiming that God's love excludes NO ONE.

We need to be a Church that celebrates and conveys our commitment to inclusivity as much today as when I was 19. 

Jesus-Followers Must Bear Witness 

As people who vow in our baptismal covenant to respect the dignity and humanity of every person, we have an obligation to bear witness to human rights and inclusiveness of our LGBTQ friends, family members, fellow parishioners and our neighbors. It is our Gospel mandate, and part of our mission to bring Christ's love into a broken world. 

On this website, you will find lots of information about Pride parades and other commemorations across the diocese.

Year after year, I witness hundreds of teens and young adults from all over the city and the diocese lining the parade routes. Sadly, I know that for survival reasons, many of them feel they must conceal their authentic selves from their parents and their church families. Not only do their parents not know where they are, more importantly, they may not know who they are. 

But they should know who we are. Clergy and lay members of our parishes proudly and joyfully marching tells them that God loves them, the Church loves them, and that we love them. And that, in the fullness of time, it gets better. 

Yours in pride, love, and peace, 
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Mother Tatro with Bishop Provenzano
Marie+
The Rev. Marie A. Tatro, Vicar
Community Justice Ministry
> Click here to see and print the Stonewall History article on one page

St. Ann & the Holy Trinity
The Pro-Cathedral 

​The Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, NY, is the heart of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island and the seat of our bishop, the Right Reverend Lawrence C. Provenzano. But when the diocese was founded over 150 years ago, and before the cathedral and campus in Garden City existed, the original seat of the bishop was at the former St. Ann and the Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn Heights.  

Although NYC is not reflected in our name, the two western counties in the Diocese of Long Island -- Brooklyn and Queens -- make up two-thirds of the population of NYC, the largest urban area in the nation. 

Our diocese is not only the most ethnically diverse in the nation, but we also find our clergy and laity doing ministry in a very broad range of contexts: rural, suburban, and urban.

When Bishop Lawrence Provenzano designated St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church as the Pro-Cathedral of the diocese in 2018 his hope was that the pulse of ministry would be felt by those in the most densely populated part of the diocese. 

When the diocese hosts "The Spirit of Stonewall" event at our Pro-Cathedral on June 9th commemorating the 50th Stonewall anniversary, it will be a proud acknowledgment of that center for urban ministry.

We look forward at the Pro-Cathedral to many more diocesan events -- both community justice-oriented and liturgical -- in the years to come, where our many EDLI members in Brooklyn and Queens can embrace a sense of ownership of our strong diocesan presence in the City of New York. 
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John+
The Rev. Canon John E. Denaro,
Rector

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