Jersey Pride's 18th Annual Pride Celebration was held this past weekend on Sunday, June 7. Jersey Pride's first celebration was held on a Saturday, but from year number two on, it has traditionally been the first Sunday in June. The weekend was full of events and many attendees flocked to Asbury Park to celebrate.
Asbury Park NJ has a very active LGBTI community. On Friday night, the LGBTI Chamber of Commerce, headed up by Aaron, the man who is literally EVERYWHERE, sponsored a cocktail party that featured tables with local groups and businesses as well as gogo boys, hot men and women, and cold drinks. It was a great kickoff, which led many to trek to Paradise to see the RuPaul Drag Race event, which didn't start till midnight.
Saturday was equally full. The early part of the day saw the Second Annual Ride for Pride lead off from the Boardwalk in front of historic Convention Hall in Asbury Park very early Saturday morning. Langosta Lounge on the Boardwalk hosted a buffet breakfast for the victorious riders, as well as the hardworking Jersey Pride volunteers working setup in Bradley and Atlantic Park. It was a gorgeous day, undreamed of on Friday, when squalls of wind and rain made early set up impossible.
The sun rose higher in the blue sky, slight humidity gracing the skin with a light film of perspiration. My afternoon break was timed to coincide with Foreplay, the premier leather/bear/fetish/kink event, produced as a benefit for Jersey Pride by the leather community in Asbury Park. Featuring food, potent and ordinary potables and entertainment of all description, the experienced and the curious toured the local vendors and groups, all providing information and wares. Among the highlights for me was seeing friends from all over New York and New Jersey. The timing of my visit to Foreplay was also particularly calculated to coincide with a performance by the White Elephant Burlesque troupe, whose feminine wiles my lesbian posse and I found most charming. White Elephant dancers range from svelte to zaftig and, whether a bride stripping from a wedding gown or the work of the naughty quartet of schoolgirls, were extremely entertaining. Special barbers were available, and there were dueling bootblacks under a canopy to treat you well. My Doc Martens had miles to go before they could rest, so an expert polish just was not in the cards. The leather flea market is a great place for starters who want items with great energy already within. The flea market also provides seed money for Foreplay 2010. Keep your eyes open for the sassy and sexy post card that advertises the Mr. and Ms. NJ Leather competition in the fall. It will be widely distributed throughout the Northeast.
On Saturday evening, people took to bars and restaurants all over the city. It was also First Night, so LGBTI couples and singles could stroll the businesses along the well-traveled avenues to enjoy music, galleries, restaurants and more. Balmy breezes drew many couples to the Boardwalk yet again where the moon, nearly at its fullest, rose serenely over the Atlantic Ocean.
On Sunday morning, day broke sunny and blue, perfect weather for what Jersey Pride calls The Perfect Day. People from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Arizona, California and elsewhere converged, as vendors, group volunteers, marchers, marshals and attendees made their way to the Parade-mustering area and the Rally area. The Parade route runs right down Grand Avenue at about the time when the churches, which line the shady thoroughfare, are releasing their charges into the beauty of early summer noontime. Brightly colored balloons, floats, decorated vehicles, motorcycles, rollerbladers, and marchers ranged from individuals and groups to corporate presences, all supporting diversity in the greater community and better relations among all people. The Parade entered the Festival at around 12:45 p.m., with a flurry of sirens, fire engines, RVs, and throngs of adoring marchers and watchers.
The Festival boasted more than 100 vendors and the Rally Stage featured not one, but three headliners. Their hair and makeup perfect, the Kinsey Sicks, wearing a rainbow of Chinese silk dresses, shared their wisdom and fey humor. Starting with their signature song "Dragapella", this a cappella quartet rocked it out. An example of their Möbius strip humor is taking Holly Near's peace anthem, "Singing for our Lives," and making it decidedly un-peaceful, yet cleverly embracing many of the aspects of our homosexuality. They are unforgettable, for both their full-sensory presentation and their deft close-harmony. The next headliner was Toronto-based band The Cliks. Frontman Lucas Silveira, sporting a near sleeve of tattoos on his arm and an interesting tat below his left ear, had the crowd, more than 21,000 strong, in the palm of his hand. Playing some songs from their prior albums, and a few featured tunes from "Dirty King," the new album in stores June 23, The Cliks brought the energy level soaring into the blue, with crowd singing along with "Complicated." The third headliner was Evelyn "Champagne" King, providing selections from her catalog of 12 albums and myriad dance hits, making the gamut of entertainment run from queens to dirty kings to this disco diva, who featured her equally talented husband Freddie Fox on guitar. As she whipped the crowd into a dancing frenzy and attendees, from babes in arms-with rainbow bandannas, of course-to those who remember when King burst onto the scene as a super-talented teen, sang and danced together as a sea of swaying humanity, it made for the perfect ending to The Perfect Day. People began collecting their blankets, their significant others, and their recycling and other items from the locations where they had situated themselves, and began the breezy sunset walk to vehicles and bars and restaurants, replete with joy and a little bit of sunburn. Now Pride month had truly begun.
Pride is an every day thing, not just an every June thing. Make sure you get involved in your community and feel how much a part you are of a rebellion that began nearly 40 years ago when Sylvia Rivera and a handful of Christopher Street denizens decided it was time for LGBTI people to be treated as first class citizens. We are descended, in a line of activism, from them and it's time we proved our mettle. Happy Pride!
