Dominique Jackson, Sasha Velour, Alok Vaid-Menon, and More Celebrate 40 Years of New York City’s LGBT Center

That New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center’s 40th-anniversary dinner and celebration, hosted last night at Cipriani Wall Street, kicked off with a powerful edition of Drag Story Hour was no happy coincidence. “Starting off the night with our very own drag story time is more than just a cute queer moment,” stated actress and model Dominique Jackson as she welcomed attendees after beloved New York City drag queen Pixie Aventura’s reading, “it is joy and defiance in the face of nationwide anti-LGBTQ+ extremism that is trying to force us out of public lives. But our friends, there is one thing our oppressors don’t understand no matter what they do: We are not going anywhere.”

Jackson’s heartfelt speech set the stage for a night of queer joy, celebration, and reflection, one that saw over 900 supporters come together to raise over $1.7 million to support The Center’s programs, and to honor renowned writer and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon, Broadway producer and philanthropist Ted Snowdon, and The Keith Haring Foundation. But more than anything, the evening celebrated the deep impact The Center has had in creating avenues for community building for queer folks in New York City. “We find strength in each other and in all our allies,” remarked Jackson, “The Center is proof of what has been for the past 40 years, and it’s why we’re all here tonight. LGTBQ+ New Yorkers have come together and will always come together through cycles of great progress and great pain to heal, grow, and organize in pursuit of liberation for all LGTBQ people.”

The evening started with a cocktail hour that saw members of every corner of the queer community in New York come together to mingle, toast, and recognize how The Center has brought all of us together over the years. In attendance were the likes of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 winner Sasha Velour, Adam Eli, Parker Kit Hill, Susanne Bartsch, Shoshana Bean, designers Prabal Gurung and Willy Chavarria, and many more. Following Drag Story Hour and Jackson’s welcoming remarks, theater producer Tom Kirdahy presented Ted Snowdon with the Vanguard Award for his philanthropic contributions to LGBTQ+ causes and the arts, who highlighted The Center’s unwavering permanence as a safe haven for all queer New Yorkers. Shortly after, writer Brad Gooch presented The Keith Haring Foundation with the Community Award, which celebrated the foundation’s preservation of Haring’s impact and legacy. The award was accepted by Gil Vazquez, Executive Director, and Fawn Krieger, Program Director of The Keith Haring Foundation.

A beautifully rainbow-lit dinner by Cipriani followed, accompanied by a performance by The Youth Pride Chorus, who offered a heartfelt rendition of Rent’s “Seasons of Love.” After the performance and remarks by Joshua Allen and Glennda Testone, The Center’s Executive Director, Velour presented Vaid-Menon with the Visionary Award, who she described as “one of the most important thinkers, artists, and activists right now.” “For so long, LGBTQ people have sought to convince the world of our humanity. It relies on the incorrect premise that we are broken, a belief that ensures that our claims always remain aspirational and our worthiness conditional. We are not broken; a society that winnows down the wonder of the world into binaries is. What we are is free. We are not targeted because we fail – fail to be men, fail to be women, fail to be normal. But because we are free,” said Vaid-Menon.

To close out the evening, Broadway legend Shoshana Bean offered renditions of The Beatles’s “With a Little Help from My Friends” and “This is Me” from The Greatest Showman.