Cherry Grove could have been mistaken for New Orleans down east on June 25 as several hundred people packed downtown for its sixth annual Gay Pride Parade. The parade, which snaked its way through the central business district, featured a Who’s Who of Grove celebrities, including Porsche, Bruce-Michael Gelbert and his partner, Mr. Fire Island Leather 2005 Joe Saporito, Cherry Grove Community Association President Roland Michely, Arts Project of Cherry Grove President Wendy Lewis and entertainer Ariel Sinclair, all throwing beads and other tempting treats to a ever-raucous and cheering crowd.
Local businesses, such as David’s Grill & Martini Bar, Cherry Grove Pizza, Jumping Jack’s Seafood Shack and the Bunkhouse in Sayville, and community organizations, including the Cherry Grove Fire Department, also took part in the festivities with a variety of campy, brightly decorated floats that embodied the Mardi Gras theme of this year’s celebration.

The parade, along with an auction at the Ice Palace to benefit Thursday’s Child, a Patchogue-based HIV and AIDS support services group and fireworks over the Great South Bay, capped off a series of events earlier in the day across the bay in Sayville that marked the third annual Out in Sayville celebration. This event, which followed the Long Island Pride Parade & Festival in Huntington on June 12, featured a series of events that included a performance by the New Century Singers in Common Ground Park, a tea dance at the Bunkhouse and a parade along Main Street.

Dozens of rainbow flags also lined Main Street in Sayville. Out in Sayville Co-founder Tom Hroncich, who also edits Outlook Long Island, a gay and lesbian magazine that covers Nassau and Suffolk counties, said that he decided to create Out in Sayville after he was one of only 12 people who took part the Cherry Grove Gay Pride parade in 2003. Hroncich added that this year’s large turnout, due in part to warm and sunny weather, shows just how much the event has grown since its conception.

"It’s a lot more fun when people are watching the parade and participating," he said.

Amelia Migliaccio, a Grove resident since 1959 who marched with a contingent of six other women as part of the Lesbian Bouquet (or L-Word), agreed. She noted that the parade has grown by leaps and bounds since the first took place in 1999.

"It is growing and growing," Migliaccio said. "Every year it grows."

Sayville Inn Co-owner Pamela Raymond, who rode a float that proclaimed "Get Leid at the Sayville Inn" as she threw Hawaiian leis to the crowd in the Grove, said Out in Sayville is a great way to spotlight the contributions gays and lesbians have made to both Sayville and Cherry Grove.

"It’s a celebration of diversity," Raymond said.

Hroncich agreed. He added that another of Out in Sayville’s many purposes, aside from bringing Sayville and Cherry Grove closer together, is to let people know that gays and lesbians are an integral part of both places.

"We’re an important part of the community," Hroncich said.