Anti-LGBTQ+ agitators protest Jackson Heights block party
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An anti-LGBTQ+ protester stands face-to-face with State Senator Jessica Ramos at a block party hosted by the Queens Community House in Jackson Heights on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. Photo via Jessica Ramos/Twitter
By Jacob Kaye
A block party celebrating Queens’ LGBTQ+ community was interrupted Saturday by a group of anti-LGBTQ+ agitators in Jackson Heights.
But despite several tense moments between the agitators, block party participants and a number of elected officials in attendance, organizers of the event say the protesters did little but bring the party’s participants closer together.
The Autumn Outfest, the first such festival created in part by Queens Community House’s Generation Q, was planned as an all day festival to “create space where people can be authentic,” said Julia Peitzer, the assistant director of Generation Q. The block party also hosted over two dozen organizations, which shared resources with people in the neighborhood who may need them.
“It was also to provide a good time,” Peitzer told the Eagle.
And by most accounts, that’s what happened.
However, around mid-day, a group of around a dozen anti-LGBTQ protesters began picketing the block party, which also featured the group Drag Story Hour, an organization that has recently received disturbing threats and has drawn rebuke from Republican lawmakers, including one in Queens.
Videos of the incident shared on social media show a number of the protesters holding signs that said, “stop grooming kids for sex,” and chanting, “leave our kids alone.” As they protested, a number of lawmakers, including Queens Borough President Donovan Richards and State Senator Jessica Ramos, stood in front of them and condemned their message.
“There is nothing that you can scream and say that will undo what we built here,” Richards said.
At several points, anti-LGBTQ protesters stood face-to-face with at least two of the elected officials in attendance.
“We want to build a bigot-free neighborhood and a bigot-free Queens,” Ramos said on Saturday. “And that will only ever be possible through love.”
Peitzer, who leads the QCH program that aims to offer support and resources to LGBTQ+ youth and young adults, said that while the agitation was alarming, it also proves the need for her and her colleague’s work.
“Discrimination is still real – that's part of what my program works to address,” she said. “My program, and by proxy, this block party is, by design, creating an affirming space for people to exist in.”
“The level of robust hatred that comes from some people who simply don't want us to exist, who would be very happy if we simply died, the level of hatred – that is combated by love, and I think we really saw that in the event,” she added. “One of the slogans we had going for the day was, ‘Love is louder than hate,’ and I really think we showed that on Saturday.”
Anti-LGBTQ+ protesters picketed a block party hosted by Queens Community House and others in Jackson Heights on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. Photo via Catalina Cruz/Twitter
Jackson Heights, where the block party was held, has long been home to one of the city’s strongest LGBTQ+ communities. The neighborhood is home to a number of gay bars and other social gathering places for the LGBTQ+ community. Voters in the neighborhood also sent Daniel Dromm to the City Council in 2009, making him one of the first two openly gay legislators outside of Manhattan elected to the council. Jackson Heights has also been host to the Queens Pride Parade for three decades.
Saturday’s incident also comes as murders of transgender and gender non-conforming people are on the rise. More transgender and gender non-conforming people were killed in hate attacks in 2021 than any year since the Human Rights Campaign began tracking the attacks, the nonprofit says. Around 30 transgender and gender non-conforming people have been killed this year in alleged hate attacks, the organization says.
Assemblymember Catalina Cruz, who represents the area and served as a co-sponsor of the Autumn Outfest, told the Eagle that prior to Saturday, she had yet to see anti-LGBTQ agitators picket in the neighborhood.
“We in Jackson Heights have always been a very welcoming community to LGBTQIA folks and their families,” Cruz said. “We live in a little bit of a bubble of safety and tolerance, and this demonstration was a reminder that our LGBTQIA families are not safe yet.”
Cruz said that her office would be meeting with the local police precinct in the coming days to discuss the ways in which they can help to keep the community safe.
“The right to free speech does not give anyone else the right to make you feel unsafe, and that's what we want to prevent,” she said. “We may never be able to change the hate in their hearts, but we will protect our loved ones.”
In June, City Councilmember Vickie Paladino was widely condemned by her council colleagues, as well as by Mayor Eric Adams, after she railed against news that the city had spent $200,000 on performances by Drag Story Hour.
“Progressives may have no problem with child grooming and sexualization, but I do,” Paladino said at the time. “This will not happen on my watch. Kids deserve a quality education free from political manipulation and sexual content.”
At the time, City Council Speaker and fellow Queens lawmaker Adrienne Adams considered issuing sanctions against Paladino for the remarks.
“A New Yorker’s choice of dress, gender expression or identity must be not only protected legally, but also against vile, hateful attacks,” Adams said in June.
Despite the interruption on Saturday, as well as previous hateful remarks made against the city’s LGBTQ+ community, Peitzer said allies have and will continue to step up to combat it.
“At the end of the day…Queens, New York City, Jackson Heights, the elected officials, the entire community consistently proves that love is louder than hate and Saturday was a practical demonstration in that concept,” she said.
