Anthony DelMundo for New York Daily News
Left to right, Andrew Ronan, City Councilman Daniel Dromm, Business Manager of Queens Pride Bill Meehan and Yessika Giraldo on 37th Ave. near 87th St. in Jackson Heights, along the route for Sunday’s 20th anniversary parade.
Jeanne Noonan for New York Daily News
A participant in 2009 Queens Pride Parade Multicultural Festival in Jackson Heights.
Jesse Ward for New York Daily News
Participants in a previous Queens Pride Parade Multicultural Festival in Jackson Heights.
Jesse Ward for New York Daily News
A participant in a previous Queens Pride Parade Multicultural Festival in Jackson Heights.
Anthony DelMundo for New York Daily News
City Councilman Daniel Dromm, founder of the Queens Pride Parade, seen here at the corner of 87th St. and 37th Ave. in Jackson Heights, along the route for Sunday’s 20th anniversary parade.
The gay community will celebrate two decades of milestones — which includes President Obama recently coming out in support of same-sex marriage — at the borough’s largest pride celebration this weekend.
Queens Pride will kick off Thursday night with a drag queen-studded celebration at Studio Square in Long Island City.
The main event — the 20th annual Queens Pride Parade Multicultural Festival — will wind through Jackson Heights on Sunday, capped with a performance by singer Martha Wash of “It’s Raining Men” fame.
The festivities are expected to attract a crowd of about 50,000. It kicks off noon at the corner of 84th St. and 37th Ave.
“In some ways, I feel like we’ve accomplished what we set out to do 20 years ago,” said City Councilman Daniel Dromm (D-Jackson Heights), who founded the parade. “Laws are changing, gay people are coming out. … There ain’t no stopping us now.”
In the first year of the now-popular festival, there were protests and cops stationed on rooftops and in helicopters to ensure the safety of participants, Dromm recalled.
Now “it’s just an accepted part of a Jackson Heights tradition,” he said. “Everybody comes out.”
Chris Calvert, co-chair of the Queens Lesbian and Gay Pride Committee, which hosts the annual event, said the group is working with local high school student volunteers to assist in preparations.
“Our theme this year is a generation of pride in Queens,” he said. “Over the past 20 years, Queen pride went from being a fringe movement to two openly gay council members.”
The committee is also honoring the Queens Center for Gay Seniors and family of Julio Rivera, a gay man who was fatally stabbed and beaten more than 20 years ago in Jackson Heights.
The victim’s brother, Theodore Rivera, 63, of the Bronx, said he was pleased by the recognition.
“Every time they get to the spot where Julio was killed, they stop and we have a moment of silence,” he said. “That for us is very special because it keeps our Julio’s memory alive.”
Ejeris Dixon, a deputy director at the New York City Anti-Violence Project, said the parade can help to decrease violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community by making members more visible.
“Queens Pride allows so many facets of the LGBTQ community to come together and unite,” Dixon said. “This is a way to address the violence that has been occurring in our communities.”
