CUNY: LAGUARDIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE PRIDE MONTH AND THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE STONEWALL REBELLION

Published in events.cuny.edu on June 25, 2019

To commemorate Pride Month and the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, LaGuardia Community College collaborated with LaGuardia Airport and JetBlue on an exhibition on New York City LGBT history at the airport’s historic Marine Air Terminal. At the opening reception of the exhibition on June 14, historian Stephen Petrus at La Guardia and Wagner Archives commented, “The venue of this exhibition is entirely fitting. The LGBT community has long been prominent in the airline industry. Not only that, many individuals fleeing persecution from abroad because of their sexual orientation have entered America through LaGuardia Airport.” Port Authority executive director Rick Cotton added, “The establishment of our employee resource group, PA Pride, is critical to fostering an inclusive environment among our staff.

The exhibition is based largely on the Collection of Daniel Dromm, located at LaGuardia and Wagner Archives. Dromm was co-founder of the Queens Pride Parade in 1993 and is currently Chair of the Finance Committee in New York City Council. LaGuardia students Melissa Osoria and Srija Rai worked on the exhibition as interns at the Port Authority. A particular focus of the show is LGBT activism in Queens following the gay bashing murder of Julio Rivera in 1990 and the rejection of the citywide Children of the Rainbow Curriculum in 1992. Both events led to a surge of activism in the borough and the formation of LGBT organizations in many neighborhoods.