North Jersey Pride continues to mourn the devastating loss of 49 precious lives at the Pulse club in Orlando early Sunday morning. This act of hatred and violence—the worst mass shooting on U.S. soil, which left an additional 53 wounded—has left us, like so many others in our community, brokenhearted, outraged, helpless, hopeless.
Tuesday night, we will join with our fellow community members at a candlelight vigil in South Orange to share our grief and our anger, as well as words of hope.
North Jersey Pride and the Newark LGBTQ Community Center have decided to reschedule our cosponsored Pride Month film screening event, which was to have taken place Tuesday, so that the members of our community can join us at this vigil, and at other vigils around New Jersey. We will update our Facebook page and web site as soon as we have a new date for the film event.
We are, however, going forward with our planned Pride dance on Thursday, June 16 at Club 4Sixty6 in West Orange. We know that the goal of those who hate us is to terrorize us, to force us into hiding, to keep us from dancing, to silence us with shame and fear. To that, we say: not now—not ever.
Read more about the Pride Dance, and order tickets, here.
This Thursday night, we will answer violence with kindness, shame with pride, and hate with love. We will show our solidarity and our refusal to cower in the face of terrorism by coming together as a community, celebrating all we have accomplished and reminding ourselves—and everyone else—that we will not be terrorized into silence and hiding. We will honor the memories of those lost by continuing to live out loud, proud of who we are and of who they were.
North Jersey Pride will be donating 100% of the proceeds from this fundraiser to the families of the Orlando victims.
Please note: In order to guarantee safety as well as peace of mind for our attendees, we have arranged for additional security at the club, and we ask attendees to be prepared for thorough bag checks at the club entrance. We also ask that tickets be purchased in advance, as we will not be set up to sell at the door.
Those who cannot attend and wish to support the event can donate here. North Jersey Pride is a 501(c)3 and all donations are tax-deductible.
“Fever at 4Sixty6” event details:
Place: 4Sixty6, 466 Prospect Ave., West Orange, NJ
Date: June 16 @ 8PM
Tickets: $25 G/A; $50 VIP
