POCC Hopes To Move Ahead With Black Pride Beach Event

By Keith Boykin, in sexuality
Thursday, August 3 2006, 12:01AM

Organizers of New York City's annual black gay pride weekend are hoping to move forward with a Sunday beach event, despite a threat from the U.S. Parks Service to shut them down. Leaders of People of Color in Crisis (POCC), a Brooklyn-based HIV/AIDS service organization, said they still hope to hold their annual "Pride In The City" beach party at Jacob Riis Beach just as they have for the past five years.

"We're hopeful," said POCC's executive director Gary English. "But we also need folks [in the community] to support the effort by calling the offices" of the park service and the local government representatives," he said. Organizers spent much of the day Wednesday in negotiations with park service officials, who English described as much more conciliatory than they had been the day before. At the end of the day, the two sides were close to a compromise agreement, but POCC was still not happy with the most recent offer on the table.

The offer would have increased the 200-person maximum restriction to 1500, but would still move the event away from Riis Beach and onto a baseball field in the area. The agreement would also prohibit POCC from setting up loud speakers at the event.

POCC was dissatisfied with the proposal. "They way they have it set up now, I have some concerns about safety," English said. He cited the distance between the beach area and the baseball field as an obstacle for crowd control and said the new policy "is based on disrupting the event and trying to kill the event." He also said he hoped the park service would open the bathrooms this year, and described the decision to close the public restrooms last year as "so blatant."

Earlier in the day on Wednesday, POCC issued a news release saying that it was "outraged and disappointed" by the U.S. Park Service's decision to restrict access to Riis Beach for the Sunday function. By Wednesday evening, as negotiations had broken down, POCC announced that it would hold a press conference at the Brooklyn Marriott at 11 a.m. Thursday morning to keep up the pressure on park officials.

"At the end of the day, this boils down to a question of fairness," said English. "We are calling on our elected leaders to stand up against this insensitive decision and the media to shine a light on this obvious case of discrimination and homophobia." New York's UPN affiliate dispatched a news crew to cover the story and reported on it during the 10 o'clock news Wednesday night.

New York City officials, including U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner and City Council member Letitia James, have been supportive of the event and have tried to help negotiate an agreement with federal government officials who run the park service. In a letter to POCC on August 1, the park service notified the event organizers that the event could not take place as planned. Park service officials also told POCC that only 200 people at a time would be allowed to enter the field or the HIV testing tent the group operates.

Pride in the City is "the city's premiere Black pride celebration and attract thousands of people each year," POCC said in a news release. "This community event has provided free HIV/AIDS testing and has helped to empower the community to raise awareness and combat rates of infection within the city," according to the release.

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