Jamestown Pride Festival holds three days of events in celebration of Pride Month.

Jamestown Pride Festival

The first event is a “Slow Roll” sponsored by Pearl City Cycle that starts at at 5:30 p.m. It’s an all ages event that will involve people bicycling at a slow pace from Winter Garden Plaza on North Main Street through parts of Jamestown.

On Friday, June 9, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church will host a presentation by LGBTQ+ civil rights champion B. Proud. The award-winning photographer will be discussing her books “First Comes Love” and “Transcending Love” which portray healthy relationships within the LGBTQ+ community. That presentation starts at 6:30 p.m. at St. Luke’s Undercroft located at 410 North Main Street. A representative of the New York State Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion will present a proclamation that recognizes the event as being “of important cultural significance by the New York State Executive Chamber.”

Jamestown Pride Committee Representative Emily Van Wey said a variety of activities will be taking place on Saturday, June 10 as Jamestown Pride collaborates again with the Jamestown Public Market between 10:00 and 4:00 p.m. on Third Street between Cherry and Pine Streets, “So, we will have vendors, we will have different activities there. We will have drag queens, we will have music, we will have yoga in the morning provided by Amplified Movement. And, so, there are a lot of opportunities. Covenant Manor has offered up their space as a quiet space in case anyone just needs a break from the crowd or just a little room to decompress.”

Van Wey said a 21 and older event will take place from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., Saturday night at Sneakers Bar on 10 Harrison Street. That event will feature local drag queens from Lip Poppin Productions.

Jamestown Pride Fest will conclude with a Pride Service at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Sunday, June 11 starting at 10:00 a.m.

Van Wey said it’s important to have these Pride events for members of the LGBTQ+ community, “Really just to create a safe environment and a place for our community members just to show up to be their authentic selves. And also family and friends of people who are part of the community to support their loved ones and really to learn more about how to be a better ally and how to be there for people who might be different from you.”

For more information, visit Jamestown Pride’s website at https://www.mhachautauqua.org/jamestownpride

Jamestown Pride Committee members raise Progressive Pride flag on Tracy Plaza for Pride month (June 2, 2023)

Community members gathered Friday on Tracy Plaza for the raising of the Pride Progressive Flag for the start of Pride month in the city of Jamestown.

Jamestown Pride representative Tim Starr spoke, saying when he grew up in the area there was zero visibility for members of the LGBTQ+ community, “What we do here today is not just make a statement, although that’s very important. Today is about making sure that other people can see who we are. Can see that we’re proud survivors of everything that has gone on in the past, and that they too can have hope for their future.”

Mayor Eddie Sundquist, who is Gay, said the theme of the flag raising, “Vote With Pride,” is one way to stop government from stripping rights from the LGBTQ+ community, “We have grown apathetic and that apathy has allowed our politicians to creep in with legislation that is homophobic, anti-trans, and just downright mean. And don’t think it’s in just certain states. Did you know, in April, our own Assemblyman and Senator introduced a bill to ban transgender females in middle and high school from school sports? The same type of bills being introduced in legislatures across this country.”

Sundquist said he sent a letter in opposition to the state legislature saying the bill would deprive “a subset of students and young people of opportunities available to their peers and, if passed, would send a message to vulnerable transgender youth that they are not welcome or accepted in their own communities.”

Jamestown Pride Fest events will begin this Thursday, June 8 and continue through the weekend. For more information, visit https://www.mhachautauqua.org/jamestownpride/

We talk to B Proud, who is the opening speaker for Jamestown Pride’s festival weekend.

B Proud

Pride Flag Raising Ceremony on Tracy Plaza (June 2021)

A flag raising event will take place this afternoon to kick off Pride Month in the City of Jamestown.

Jamestown Pride will hold a rally and raise the Progressive Pride Flag at 4:00 p.m. on Tracy Plaza next to Jamestown City Hall.

The event will include voter registration, information on local candidates, as well as food. The rally is free and open to the public.

At the state level, Governor Kathy Hochul has ordered pride progress flags to be raised across the state and state landmarks to be illuminated in the colors of the LGBTQ+ pride flag for Pride month. She also announced that the progress pride flag will be flown at State Parks as well.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist speaks at Pride Flag Raising Ceremony on Tracy Plaza (June 11, 2022)

Over 50 people turned out for the Pride Flag Raising on Tracy Plaza as part of Jamestown Pride Fest on Saturday.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the ceremony represented how far the community had come despite adversity. He said, however, his heart was heavy over the mass shootings that have taken place recently, how abortion rights are being threatened, and how how the nation is divided.

Sundquist read passages from his Pride month speech in June 2020 that took place during the height of COVID Pandemic, citing their relevance today, “Every time I turn on the news, I feel defeated. I feel as though our community tried to take one step forward and is thrown two steps back. But that’s the thing about our community. It does not waver. It does not stop fighting. You may knock us down, but we get right back up.”

Sundquist said one of the most incredible things about the Queer community is how it fights for others, “Our ability to fight for the rights of marginalized people, to share the fight for basic human rights. Now let me be clear, you mess with any of us, you get all of us.”

Sundquist also shared a proclamation designating June as Pride Month in Jamestown.

Jamestown High School Gay-Straight Alliance President Arron Loomis said having a Pride Fest in the area is crucial, “It provided a safe space for us to come together and be ourselves, which many of us are not able to do so at home or school. Jamestown Pride has also allowed us to meet smaller Queer communities in our county and celebrate the diversity closer to home. Having a local Pride festival demonstrates how far we’ve come as an area.”

Loomis said there are over 238 bills limiting LGBTQ rights this year alone, with most of them targeting trans people in regards to youth sports to denial of gender affirming care. In 2021, the Human Rights Campaign said over 50 fatalities of transgender and gender-non conforming people were due to violent attacks.

Loomis said there has been backlash at local schools due to the observance of Pride month, “I know a number of youth who have experienced homophobia and transphobia throughout the school year. This hate does not only exist because of youth. Hate is learned. Even in public, there’s many of us who have dealt with hate, ranging from slurs to death threats. This is why education and Pride are essential. It allows for those around us to see that we are human beings with lives and families. We have aspirations and dreams.”

The Progress Flag that was raised on Tracy Plaza is a redesign of the rainbow flag from 1978 that celebrates the diversity of the LGBTQ community and calls for a more inclusive society.

Jamestown Pride

A Slow Roll Bike Ride by Pearl City Cycle will start downtown at 5:30 p.m. Friday. That will be followed by a free ages 21-and up event at 9:00 p.m. at Sneaker’s Bar on Harrison and Institute Streets that features burlesque troupe, Laced Up Ladies.

Jamestown Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith said Saturday is the main Festival day starting at 8:30 a.m. with yoga at Comedy Center Park, followed by a Pride Flag Raising ceremony on Tracy Plaza at 9:30 a.m., “So that’s a really integral part of what we do, because there is a lot of celebration but this is showing the importance of the Queer community in Jamestown and Chautauqua County in general.”

Smith said the Pride market in conjunction with the opening of the Jamestown Public Market then takes place from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on West Third Street and part of North Main Street, “So the Pride market has all sorts of different things. The Rise Journey are actually some of our sponsors who are handling a question and answer tent. So you’ll be able to ask questions about the Queer community. If you’re in the Queer community and want to know more. If you’re outside of the Queer community, because it’s with the Public Market so we’ve set this up so many people will be there who don’t necessarily think they have a reason to celebrate Pride, so now they have a place to go to ask questions.”

Smith said other activities during the market include games, performances, story telling, other resource tables, as well as Pride merchandise vendors and food trucks.

Evening activities taking place at the Wintergarden Plaza include DJ Little Italy and performers Thee Suburbia, Islaya, and Daphne Always.

Pride festivities take place nationally in the month of June to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising of 1969 and in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

All Jamestown Pride events on Saturday are free and family friendly.

For more information about Jamestown Pride Fest, visit facebook.com/JamestownPride.

WRFA’s Julia Ciesla-Hanley spoke with Jamestown Pride‘s Sheridan Smith and Steven Cobb about the upcoming Pride Festival.

Jamestown Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith announces Pride Festival details

The Jamestown Pride Festival will feature live music entertainment, food vendors, and resource tables at its event in downtown Jamestown this June.

The Jamestown Pride Steering Committee announced details of the upcoming event for the LGBGTQ+ community scheduled for Saturday, June 11th at a meeting Friday night.

Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith said part of the meeting was to announce information about the event and to also recruit volunteers, “We’re celebrating the whole community but we need all the community’s voices. You know, we had one of the attendees talk about the fact that we need diversity, we need representation, and we do. We do. And when you have a few people on the committee, we’re going to represent everybody. So we need the community in that way and also, I mean really, we need volunteers.”

The Pride Festival is again partnering with the Jamestown Public Market to have information, education, and merchandise booths. The event also will use the Wintergarden Plaza for resource tables in addition to being a dance space with DJs. The evening performance on the Wintergarden Plaza will feature guitarist and comedian Mrs. Smith.

While Saturday’s events are being billed as family friendly, there will be an age 21 and up event the evening of Friday, June 10 at Sneakers Bar that features local burlesque troupe, Laced Up Ladies. All events are free.

For more information about Jamestown Pride including how to get involved with the event, email JamestownPride@mhachautauqua.org or visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/JamestownPride

The event for the LGBTQ+ community, sponsored by Evergreen Health, will feature entertainment, food, and education.

The Pride Steering committee is holding a social gathering that’s open to the public at 5:15 p.m., Friday, March 25, followed by a community meeting at 6:00 p.m. to discuss the event. Both will be held at the Mental Health Association of Chautauqua County located at 31 Water Street.

The meeting also will be available by Zoom at https://temple.zoom.us/j/97825175549

For more information, contact Pride Coordinator Sheridan Smith at 716-397-9326 or by email at JamestownPride@mhachautauqua.org