STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- After the Pride Center of Staten Island was denied from marching under its own banner in Staten Island’s annual St. Patrick’s Parade on Forest Avenue on March 1, a Gay St. Patrick’s Dance will be held on Saturday to welcome the LGBTQ community and allies.

The dance will be held on March 14 at the Labetti VFW Post at 390 Hylan Blvd., in Rosebank, with music by DJ Connie Fro.

“It’s in response to our being banned, the Pride Center being banned, from last week’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade," said Jim Smith, a member of the LGBTQ community who is organizing the dance. “We’re doing our own event. I want to make it a welcoming event for the Island’s gay and lesbian population.”

He said the Pride Center being banned from marching under its banner in the parade was “very painful and hurtful." However, he said the decision sparked a lot of support from the Staten Island community on the day of the parade.

A long-standing ban against LGBTQ-related groups by the Richmond County Saint Patrick’s Day Parade Committee enveloped the parade, prompting scores of attendees to peacefully protest from the sidelines.

“The rainbow flags just bathed Forest Avenue along with the Irish flags so what they wanted to do in banning us turned out just the opposite,” Smith said.

Attending the dance will be Madison L’Insalata, Miss Staten Island 2020, who is a member of the LGBTQ community.

After publicly announcing she is bisexual a day before the parade, L’Insalata said she would be wearing a rainbow-colored scarf while waving from the back of a convertible along the parade route in West Brighton.

But on the day of the parade, Smith, director of Miss Staten Island Scholarship Pageants, was informed by parade head Larry Cummings that all pageant winners, the cars they were set to ride in, and the drivers were banned from the parade for “safety” reasons.

Miss Richmond County 2020, Gabby Ryan will also attend the dance. Ryan has two mothers and is part of an LGBTQ family. She refused to march in the parade in support of her mothers.

“We want to make a statement,” said Smith. “The statement is we’re here, we’re queer and we ain’t moving to Manhattan. ...The [LGBTQ] community is thriving. There’s more gay people than people could imagine and we’re trying to reach out to them.”

Admission will be $10 at the door.

The dance will honor Teri Russo, a long-time activist and the first woman to be Grand Marshal of the Staten Island Gay Pride Parade.

A 1988 Advance Woman of Achievement, Russo will celebrate her 80th birthday. She founded Teri’s House, a local non-profit that is part of the Down Syndrome Foundation (DSF).

For more information, or to donate a gift for the dance’s raffle table, you can call Jim Smith at 718-816-5508.

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