Winter Pride Journal 2019

QUEENS PRIDE
CO-CHAIRPERSONS
Good Evening Friends and Supporters,
Welcome to Winter Pride 2019! The funds raised this evening support the
Queens Pride Parade & Festival in June. Without your support, we could
not hold these events.
Tonight as we gather here together to celebrate 26 years of Winter Pride
success, we take pleasure and pride this year in honoring three amazing
women: Dominique Jackson - Actress and author, LaLa Zannell -
Advocate and Melissa Sklarz - Political Advocate. We are so proud to
honor and celebrate these women of power and award them for their work
that uplifts the LGBT+ community.
Finally, we want to say thank you again, all of you... our members,
business manager, volunteers, sponsors, supporters and Board of
Directors.
Thank you again for being with us tonight and see you all on Sunday,
June 2nd for the 27th Queens Pride Parade and Festival...Enjoy!
Pride = Love,
Tina Arniotis & Mo George
CoChairs

THE 26TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION
OF
QUEENS WINTER PRIDE 2019
PROGRAM
INTRODUCTIONS & WELCOMES
AWARD PRESENTATIONS TO
MELISSA SKLARZ
presented by Danny Dromm
LALA ZANNELL
presented by Zachariah Boyer
DOMINIQUE JACKSON
presented by Tina Arniotis

MISSION STATEMENT
Queens Pride was established to
about the gay, lesbian, bisexual,
promote awareness and
transgender, and queer/questioning
education among and of the gay,
community and shall support efforts
lesbian, bisexual, transgender,
by organizations and individuals that
and
foster pride, education and awareness
queer/questioning community of
for and of gay, lesbian, bisexual,
Queens County, New York.
transgendered, and queer/questioning
QLG PC shall organize a
persons.
Queens Pride Parade and
In addition to our core mission to
Multicultural Festival in Queens
organize and host the annual
County in June of each year.
Queens Pride parade and multicultural
QLGPC shall also organize
festival, our group works to foster
events, which foster pride,
youth, cultural, and social
awareness and education within
programming and to engage our
and
elected officials on issues pertinent to
the LGBT community.

QUEENS PRIDE 2019
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
CO-CHAIRS
TINA ARNIOTIS
MO GEORGE
TREASURER
STEVEN RAJA
SECRETARY
ZACHARIAH BOYER
MEMBER AT LARGE
ANDREW RONAN

THANK YOU TO OUR 2019
TABLE CAPTAINS
LGBT Network
ACQC
Ari Gershman & Chip
Lynn Schulman
Melissa Sklarz
Alan Reiff
Allen Roskoff
Michael Brady
Andrew Ronan & Chris Calvert
Michael Mallon
New Visions Democratic Club
APICHA Community Health Center
Bill Meehan
NYPresbyterian Queens
NYC Pride
Brendan Fay & Thomas Moulton
Candy Samples
Out Astoria
Out Forest Hills
Danny Dromm
Out Rockaway
Dirk McCall
Dominique Jackson
PFLAG
Pride Center of Staten Island
Greg Stein
Hank Krumholz
Queens Community House
Queens Center for Gay Seniors
Jeff Goodman
Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club
Queens Pride Lions Club
Rhoda Dunn
Kevin Uhrin & William Self
LaLa Zannell
SPICE NYC
Shekar Krishnan
LaGuardia Community College
Lesbian Gay Democratic Club Queens
Stonewall Democratic Club
UFT

Honoree - Dominique Jackson
Dominique Jackson was born on March 20, 1965 in
Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago. Although
Jackson grew up with her grandmother, she still
experienced a traumatic upbringing that included
bullying and sexual abuse. She fled to the United
States at the age of eighteen due to not being
accepted as transgender by her family.
During her time in the United States, Jackson has
experienced homelessness and turned to sex work
and living off credit cards for survival. It was in
1993, while living in Baltimore, Maryland, that
Jackson was introduced to the ballroom scene. She
then lived in various "houses" and eventually settled
in the House of Sinclair which was stationed in New
York City.
Overcoming memories of a dark childhood, Dominique self-published the hurdles,
hurts, revelations and triumphs of her journey in an autobiography titled “The
Transsexual from Tobago.” Dominique is a LGBT and human rights activist who
wants to encourage those who need hope and inspiration.
Jackson has been open about her mental health struggles. After a thirteen-year writing
process, she released her autobiography The Transsexual from Tobago. She has also
worked for several nonprofit organizations (such as Destination Tomorrow in the
Bronx) that provide outreach and services to the LGBTQ community.
In 2018, Jackson began appearing in the leading role of Elektra Abundance on the FX
series Pose, which is based on the ballroom subculture in New York City of the late
1980s. The first season boasted the largest cast of transgender actors ever for a scripted
network series, with over 50 transgender characters. On July 12, 2018, it was
announced that the series had been renewed for a second season, which is set to
premiere sometime in 2019.
Dominique recently decided to embrace a new chapter in her life and move to Los
Angeles for an exciting opportunity. With vast experience in the industry, Dominique
serves as a mentor to the models at Slay.

Honoree - MELISSA SKLARZ
In 1999, Melissa became the first transgender
person elected to office in New York when she was
elected a Judicial Delegate from the 66th Assembly
District. In 2004, Melissa became the first
transgender person from New York to be part of the
state delegation at the Democratic National
Convention, by being appointed to the Credentials
Committee and again on the Rules Committee in
2008. In 2016,
Melissa became the first New York trans person
elected to be a delegate to the Democratic National
Convention. Later that year, Melissa became the
first trans American to be selected for the Electoral
College.
She helped bring civil rights to transgender people in New York City when INT 24 became
law in 2002, served on the Working Group with the New York Human Rights Commission
to flesh out the law, and has been a lobbying leader for GENDA (Gender Expression Non
Discrimination Act) since the bill was developed in 2002. Melissa was a leader of trans
expansive birth certificate at the local and state level for the last 10 years.
In 2008, Melissa was a co-chair for Obama Pride NYC, helping to organize the LGBT
community for the campaign and was one of 250 activists invited to the first LGBT Pride in
White House in June 2009 to celebrate the Stonewall Rebellion.
In 2010, Melissa was at the side of Governor Paterson when he announced an executive
order protecting the rights of transgender people employed by New York State and was
with Governor Cuomo when he announced administrative legal amendment protecting trans
New Yorkers in 2015. Currently, Melissa is a member of the Failla Unified Court
Commission, to ensure the New York Court system is fair for all LGBT New Yorkers.
Melissa was the first member appointed.
Melissa moved to Queens in 2005 and has been active in Queens politics, and serving on
the executive board of Northern Regular Democrats in North Woodside. She is also a
member of Powhatan Democratic Club and Taminent Democratic Club.
Melissa had a featured role in the film Transamerica.

Honoree -
LALA ZANNELL
LaLa is an dedicated and passionate advocate, and
Michigan native now residing in New York. Gifted
public speaker, thought leader, and speechwriter
who speaks out on issues related to anti-LGBTQ
violence, and especially the disproportionate
violence that Trans and gender non- conforming
people of color face as a tool for her personal
healing.
LaLa was a member of the National Coalition of
Anti violence Program (NCAVP) Movement
Building Committee. Professionally LaLa is the
Lead Organizer at the New York City Anti-Violence
project (AVP),
LaLa is the face and leads AVP’s public community organizing work, doing advocacy,
outreach, and networking on behalf of LGBTQ New Yorkers who have experienced
violence. LaLa also plays a key role in AVP’s Rapid Incident Response team, which
responds whenever incidents of hate violence, sexual violence or intimate partner violence
impacting LGBTQ and HIV-affected New Yorkers become public and national responses
to hate violence.
LaLa spoke at the White House for the first Women’s history month briefing to include
transwoman and the last Trans women of color briefing under the Obama administration
testified at the first historic Congressional Forum on violence against transgender people.
LaLa continues her part to culture shift as a chair of the policy and working group
committee for Communities United for Police Reform (CPR) were they recently had a
small victory with the passing of Intro 541 which would put an end to unconstitutional
searched by the NYPD. Was a member of the Trans Women of Color Collective (TWOCC)
New York leadership team anchoring their Healing and Restorative Justice Institute and
made 2015 Trans 100 list for LaLa’s dedicated work with making the lives of Tran Woman
of Color better. Recently LaLa has partnered up with two of her chosen sisters to become
business owners will be launching a jewelry company called “Tx3” owner and operated by
Trans Women of Color proving again we can create and be successful in anything we put
all of our collective power in.
Recently testified to help the passing of the NYC X gender marker on the birth certificate
helped push to get TGNC funding pushed to trans led groups through the city council
office.

JOIN US
QUEENS GAY PRIDE
PARADE & FESTIVAL
SUNDAY, JUNE 2, 2019
JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS
@QUEENSPRIDENYC
WWW.QUEENSPRIDE.ORG
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THANK YOU TO OUR
VOLUNTEERS
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GREG STEIN
MONICA MENENDEZ
NIC CALABRO

Congratulations
to
Ari, Chip
and the entire
Winter Pride
community.
Steven and Ruth
Wimpfheimer
Men Who Brunch is an lifestyle
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