Pat’s for All Parade in Queens, spoke to the event’s importance:Īrturo Ignacio Sánchez, Ph. Brendan Fay, an Irish immigrant who would later found the St. Several participants reflected on both their thrill and nervousness in marching in their home borough, as opposed to the NYC Pride March in the more LGBT-tolerant Manhattan. The first grand marshals in 1993 were then-New York City Council Member Tom Duane, who grew up in Flushing and, in 1991, became the first openly gay man ever elected to the Council New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, who grew up in Queens Village and, in 1990, was the first openly lesbian woman ever elected to the New York State Legislature and pioneering ally Jeanne Manford, a native of Flushing and PFLAG co-founder. Marchers held photos of gay and trans murder victims, including Julio Rivera and Staten Island’s Jimmy Zappalorti. Colombia, a Queens resident since emigrating from Colombia in 1975, was also present. Groups that marched in the parade’s earliest years included, among others, Q-GLU, Las Buenas Amigas, South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association (SALGA), Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition, Latino Gay Men of New York, Colombian Lesbian and Gay Association (COLEGA), Men of All Colors Together, Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), New York Area Bisexual Network, Metropolitan Gender Network, Lesbian Avengers, AIDS Center of Queens County (also a major parade sponsor), and the Sirens Motorcycle Club, which led the parade. Queens Lesbian & Gay Pride Committee co-chair, 1993 Martinez gave a bilingual speech, with the following spoken in Spanish: The accompanying stage show featured drag queen and transgender performers, who were also pivotal beforehand in helping to raise money and promote the parade at the gay bars where they regularly entertained. Martinez was responsible for the multicultural festival on nearby 37th Road. As is the case today, the parade route ran from 89th to 75th Streets along 37th Avenue, which was painted with a lavender line. The first Queens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival took place on Sunday, June 6, 1993, and an estimated 10,000 people attended. that if they became visible, they would pay a price.” Dromm later recalled that some bar owners were resistant, “It was a very quiet lesbian and gay community - a large one but not a very visible one.
Co-chaired by Dromm and Cuban-born LGBT rights activist Maritza Martinez, QLGPC canvassed neighborhood gay bars for donations and support. On November 22, 1992, the initial planning meeting was held in Dromm’s Flushing apartment, and the formation of the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee (QLGPC) followed soon after at a meeting of Queens Gays and Lesbians United (Q-GLU). Queens Lesbian & Gay Pride Committee co-chair, 1999 As a result, current City Council Member Daniel Dromm, who was then a public school teacher in the borough’s Community School District 24 (where the controversy was centered), came out as openly gay and decided to counter the ensuing propaganda with a family-friendly celebratory parade that would promote LGBT visibility and pride, and be based in a neighborhood where many closeted gay people lived.
The Queens Pride Parade formed in response to Rivera’s murder and, more directly, to the 1992 homophobic outcry over the inclusion of gay and lesbian content in the Children of the Rainbow curriculum, which was designed to teach children tolerance of all of New York City’s diverse communities. Until the activism spurred on by the gay-biased murder of Julio Rivera in July 1990, however, the LGBT community of the neighborhood - and Queens in general - was largely invisible. Beginning in the 1970s, Latino immigrants arrived in Jackson Heights in large numbers and, gradually, gay bars in the area catered predominantly to LGBT Latinos.
After the opening of LaGuardia Airport, gay travelers and flight attendants waited out layovers by visiting a small entertainment district on 37th Avenue. Jackson Heights has been home to LGBT residents since the 1920s, when a population boom included a significant number of Broadway theater artists who were attracted to the convenient subway commute from Times Square to the quiet, newly-built residential enclave.