More than a dozen LGBTQ leaders and groups — from historic figures of the past to modern-day changemakers — will be recognized at Fire Island’s Trailblazers Park on June 1 as part of a Pride Month kickoff event.
Tucked away just across the Fire Island Pines Marina, Trailblazers Park is raising 16 flags to represent 16 members of the community who will be featured at the park for a two-year stint beginning this Pride Month. Some of the incoming leaders will be on hand when The Pines Foundation hosts a flag-raising ceremony and discussion to introduce the newest additions beginning at noon on the first day of June at Whyte Hall at 577 Fire Island Blvd.
The park was conceived by trans activist Iman Le Caire during Pride Month in 2020 — at the height of the protest movement against police brutality that emerged in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd — as a way to honor difference-makers like the late trans activist and Stonewall veteran Marsha P. Johnson. The Fire Island Pines Property Owners Association ultimately set the plan into motion with funding from the Pines Foundation before opening in the summer of 2022. While the trailblazers in the park are slated to change with time, the space also features a water fountain centerpiece that pays tribute to Johnson and another late trans activist, Sylvia Rivera.
SAGE CEO Michael Adams will serve as the moderator of the event, which will feature in-person appearances by five of the 16 trailblazers: Minneapolis Councilmember Andrea Jenkins, who is the first Black trans woman to be elected to public office and formerly served as City Council president; Jim Pepper, a former GMHC board of directors member and co-founder of the Stonewall Community Foundation; LGBTQ activist and former Lamba Legal executive director Kevin Cathcart; Richard Burns, who co-founded GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), served as executive director of the LGBTQ+ Center in Manhattan, and is the board chair of the American LGBTQ+ Museum; and Phil Wilson, who founded the Black AIDS Institute and spent more than two decades as its president and CEO. […]
Click here to read the full piece. This story was originally published by Gay City News on May 24, 2024.
