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Charlotte Amalie
Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Storms Change Plans for Pride Week

Organizers of St. Croix Pride Week were ambitious this year. For the last three years they have had one event to celebrate gay pride on the island. This year they had scheduled a weeklong celebration to have started Monday, with socials and adventure outings all week long.

It was the wrong time to be ambitious, according to Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria. Irma left many on the island without power last week and Maria is predicted to hit right in the middle of the scheduled events.

The weekend saw the organizers scrambling, canceling some events, then rescheduling events and then rescheduling them again.

The first victims were dives that were scheduled for Monday. According to Bob Palmatier, president St. Croix Pride, Inc, reports were that visibility in the water near the Frederiksted Pier was near zero.

“We felt, if you can’t see anything, why go down?” he said.

Then as Maria moved eastward and projections had St. Croix pretty much in the center of the cone, a horseback riding event scheduled for Tuesday and hikes in the middle of the week were put on hold.

Still, on Sunday afternoon Palmatier was offering that an event set for 5:30 p.m. on Thursday – Pride Through Art, at the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts in Frederiksted – could survive and be the kickoff event.

But as Maria kept building steam and holding to a path that would bring it over St. Croix, Palmatier sent an email to the Source Sunday evening saying, ”Maria kicked over all of the dominoes, so everything is now rescheduled (tentatively). Hopefully Maria is gentle with us, even though that is not what is forecast.”

Events such as Pride Goes to the Movies, featuring Kinky Boots, which was scheduled for Sept. 22, are now sated for Sept. 29. It will start at 7:30 p.m. at Shupe’s On the Boardwalk, Christiansted.

The first St. Croix Gay Pride event four years ago attracted 60 people. The last two years it has been beach party at Sand Castle on the Beach in Frederiksted attracting 100 people.

This year, Palmatier expected 150 to attend a similar event Sep. 23 at Sand Castle’s again, but the date now has been moved to Sept. 30 and Palmatier wonders what kind of beach party it will be. He says the stormy ocean has washed all the sand from that beach. He told the Source, “Now I know I live on a rock.”

A press release from Gay Pride says it “works toward a future without discrimination, where all people have equal rights under the law. Through education, outreach, and celebration of our diverse communities, we promote a world free of prejudice and bias, and serve to educate, motivate, support, liberate, and celebrate our community to grow and protect our lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) legacy for future generations.”

Palmatier has lived on St. Croix for four years and says, “I am amazed at the diversity and acceptance on the island.”

He is from upstate New York and has experienced a tornado. After Irma, he says, “A hurricane is worse, it lasts a long time. A tornado is quick.”

Among the events being rescheduled is a Pride and Faith Service hosted by the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and a Harmony Dinner Dance honoring allies of the LGBTQ community, at Villa Morales Restaurant and Guest House, Frederiksted.

Organizers, after Irma, have reconsidered where the funds raised should go. Originally St. Croix Pride planned to use the majority of sponsor donations and funds raised at events to fund Liberty Place, a support program for LGBTQ youths and their families. Liberty Place agreed to forego this funding in favor of providing funds for relief to victims of Hurricane Irma in the U.S. Virgin Islands. An initial grant of $4,000 is in hand and more funds are expected to be raised during the events.

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