How To Celebrate June Pride Month On Long Island

NEW YORK — Pride Month starts Thursday and continues through June, with several ways in New York to participate in the celebration of LGBTQ culture, rights and identity.

Among them is the 2023 Babylon Village Pride Car Parade & Celebration.

" Come and help us celebrate our 4th Annual Babylon Village Pride Car Parade and Celebration," a Facebook listing for the event stated. "Arrive by 1:00 PM to access parking and get a good viewing area. Parade starts at 3PM. Viewing areas are West Montauk Highway and Deer Park Avenue in Babylon Village."

Other events include:

• Proud & Loud Pride Brunch (Babylon)
  • Sunday, June 4 from noon - 2 p.m.
  • Lily's Babylon 345 Deer Park Avenue
• Hamptons Pride Parade 2023 (East Hampton)
  • Lineup begins at 11 a.m. Saturday on Main Street by Pondview Lane and Guild Hall. At noon, registered participants will march east on Main Street and continue via Newton Lane, Railroad Avenue, and Lumber Lane to Herrick Park, where there will be music and celebration with D.J. Karin Ward till 3 p.m.
• Patchogue Pride Parade
  • Patchogue Main Street, noon Sunday, starting at Rt. 112, heading west.
• Passion for Pride PFY Fundraiser (Westbury Manor)
  • Tuesday, Jun 13 from 6-10 p.m.
  • PFY is celebrating an incredible 30 years of serving the LGBTQ+ communities of Long Island and Queens. Tickets include patio cocktail hour, seated dinner, full open bar, guest speakers, raffles, games, dancing, and a Drag BINGO performance.
• Pride After Dark 2023 (Garden City)
  • Saturday, June 17
  • PFY's 7th annual Pride After Dark celebration features drag shows, dancing, music, prizes, a lip sync contest, and more.

• New Queens Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival
  • The second oldest and second-largest pride parade in New York City. The LBT Network is celebrating its 30th anniversary of Queens Pride on Sunday, June 4, from noon – 6 p.m. on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights.

Pride Month occurs during June in deference to the Stonewall Uprising, a tipping point in the struggle for equality among people who identify as LGBTQ. New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar, in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. Such raids were common, but patrons fought back, resulting in days of violent clashes across Greenwich village.

The observance started as Gay Pride Day on the last Sunday in June, but soon grew to the point that June calendars are packed with pride parades, parties, workshops, symposiums and concerts across the nation and around the world.

In New York, about 5 percent of the population — or 913,000 people — identify as LGBTQ, according to the Movement Advance Project, which tracks legislation targets. They represent 6 percent of the state's workforce, 588,000 people.

The organization gives New York 39.5 points out of a possible 43.5 points. Our state received 18.5 points out of a possible 20 for sexual orientation policy and 21 points out of a possible 23 for gender policy. The overall ranking was graded “high.”

Pride Month 2023 occurs amid a historic surge in bills targeting LGBTQ rights, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Nearly 500 pieces of legislation nationwide have been filed in state legislatures this year, according to the ACLU tracking.

New York is one of only a handful of states in the country to have no such bills filed, according to the organization.

“LGBTQ people are under fire, unlike possibly ever before and across virtually every aspect of our lives,” Logan S. Casey, a senior researcher at Movement Advancement Project, told The Washington Post in April. “This is part of a very clear and identifiable national effort in state legislatures that is and has been going on for years — and it’s really culminating this year.”