{"id":279105,"date":"2026-06-26T17:35:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/279105\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T17:35:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:35:44","slug":"borough-president-richards-hosts-annual-pride-month-celebration-at-queens-borough-hall-qns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/279105\/","title":{"rendered":"Borough President Richards hosts annual Pride Month Celebration at Queens Borough Hall \u2013 QNS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on June 24 hosted the annual Pride Month Celebration honoring members and leaders in the LGBTQIA+ community at Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The event provided food from White Castle; performances by dancers, bands and rappers; and freebies from MetroHealth Plus and Legal Services NYC. The Pride Month Celebration was sponsored by MetroHealth Plus and Ponce Bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-614871\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/richards-pride-month-queens-borough-hall02.jpg\" alt=\"Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on June 24 hosted the annual Pride Month Celebration honoring members and leaders in the LGBTQIA+ community at Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.\u00a0\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"  \/>Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on June 24 hosted the annual Pride Month Celebration honoring members and leaders in the LGBTQIA+ community at Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.\u00a0Photo by Alice Moreno<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur LGBTQ+ communities know a little something about comebacks. About being doubted, being underestimated, being told to wait your turn \u2014 and showing up anyway, fighting anyway, winning anyway,\u201d said Richards. \u201cSo tonight, we celebrate. We are closing out Pride Month exactly the way it should be closed \u2014 together, in community, in joy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The event opened with a performance by Brooklyn based folk-pop trio Camp Bedford. Then, they held a \u201cGay Sports Trivia,\u201d asking questions related to Brooklyn Nets player Jason Collins (the first openly gay athlete to play in any of the four major North American sports leagues), the hit TV show \u201cHeated Rivalry,\u201d and the namesake of the Billie Jean King Tennis Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-614872\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/richards-pride-month-queens-borough-hall03.jpg\" alt=\"Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on June 24 hosted the annual Pride Month Celebration honoring members and leaders in the LGBTQIA+ community at Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.\u00a0\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"  \/>Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on June 24 hosted the annual Pride Month Celebration honoring members and leaders in the LGBTQIA+ community at Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.\u00a0Photo by Alice Moreno<\/p>\n<p>Afterwards, Adam Basco Mahieddine and Sundari the Indian Goddess performed separate cultural dance routines, mesmerizing the audience with their powerful moves. Sundari the Indian Goddess danced with the LGBTQIA+ and the transgender flag, showing her support for the community. The dance routine followed by a performance by Finn Caroll, who performed the song \u201cLush Life\u201d on the cello.<\/p>\n<p>Five local LGBTQIA+ community members were honored for their contributions and service for fighting for equal rights and diversity in the workforce and beyond. Honorees included Voces Latina; ACLU Deputy Director of Leadership Gifts Mark Burhmester; Artistic Director of Culture Lab LIC Tess Howsam; and Commissioner of the United States Commission on Civil Rights Glenn D. Magpantay.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-614873\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/richards-pride-month-queens-borough-hall04.jpg\" alt=\"Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on June 24 hosted the annual Pride Month Celebration honoring members and leaders in the LGBTQIA+ community at Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.\u00a0\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\"  \/>Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on June 24 hosted the annual Pride Month Celebration honoring members and leaders in the LGBTQIA+ community at Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.\u00a0Photo by Alice Moreno<\/p>\n<p>The highest award honored is the Cecilia Gentili Community Champion award. Gentili, who passed away in 2024, was an advocate for the rights of transgender people and sex workers. The award went to Tabytha Gonzalez, Director of Policy and Advocacy for Destination Tomorrow. The event concluded with a performance by rapper David Sincere, hyping up the audience with his rhymes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, QBP Richards also held a <a href=\"https:\/\/qns.com\/2026\/06\/richards-pride-month-flag-raising\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">flag raising ceremony<\/a> in honor of the start of Pride month. They raised the Pride flag alongside the Progress Pride flag, an updated version of the pride flag that represents transgender community (blue, white and light pink colors), and people of color (brown and black colors).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cOur LGBTQ+ community still faces real threats, real attacks on dignity and protection. But if this summer has taught us anything, it is that this city does not back down, and neither does Queens. We are going to keep bringing LGBTQ+ voices into this office, onto our community boards, into every decision that shapes this borough,\u201d said Richards. \u201cThat is not just a promise. That is what we do. So tonight \u2014 let\u2019s celebrate this Pride Month. Let\u2019s honor the people who earned it. And let\u2019s walk into the rest of this summer like champions, because in Queens, that is exactly what we are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr. on June 24 hosted the annual Pride Month Celebration honoring members and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[310,9,24,63,84251,107261,122,51898,19471,124,123],"class_list":["post-279105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-daily-newsletter","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-pride-month","tag-pride-month-celebration","tag-queens","tag-queens-borough-hall","tag-queens-borough-president-donovan-richards-jr","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}