LI Pride Cites Discrimination, Won't Return To Long Beach

Citing discrimination on the part of the city, the LGBT Network says it will not be bringing the Long Island Pride Festival back to the city for a fourth year, and has instead found a new beachside location.

The LGBT Network — the Long Island non-profit that runs the Pride Parade — said it is the only organization that has had to pay the city to host an event. President and CEO David Kilmnick said the group was charged $70,000 by the city after the 2019 event, which should never have happened. And the organization has no intention of paying the bill.

"If you make one group pay and not the other, that's discrimination," Kilmnick said. "In 2018, we were told we were going to be treated the same as every event in Long Beach."

According to Kilmnick, the LGBT Network paid the city in 2017 and 2018 for the Pride events, and then learned that other events, like the Polar Bear Plunge and Irish Day, do not. The LGBT Network approached the city about it, and Kilmnick said that city officials agreed it was unfair. The City Council proposed legislation to make all groups pay, but it was tabled and never taken up again, Kilmnick said.

When the group received a bill after last year's event for $70,000, that's when the LGBT Network decided to find a new place to host.

"Once we realized we were being treated different, we sat down and said we shouldn't. And we realized we had been paying the city money for two years when we shouldn't have," Kilmnick said. "Even the organizers had to pay for beach passes."

Kilmnick said that the Pride Festival was a money-maker for the city — bringing in people from outside of town who would shop at local stores and buy beach passes to access events. He also said that, in the three years of the event, there was not one arrest related to it.

The Pride Festival has already found a new location on Long Island, Kilmnick said. He said he couldn't yet divulge the location, but said it was another beach area that would have plenty of parking and space for more people.

The people of Long Beach were very welcoming over the last three years, Kilmnick said, although the organization did receive some negativity from people who didn't want the event in Long Beach.

"In 2017 and 2018, we should have been treated the same, and we weren't," said Kilmnick. "We were promised going forward that would change. It's not our fault the city council didn't pass the special event legislation."

City officials have not yet responded to Patch's request for comment.