{"id":4172,"date":"2020-06-16T12:28:08","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T16:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=4172"},"modified":"2020-06-16T12:28:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T16:28:08","slug":"exit-82-theater-company-sponsoring-pride-events-june-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2020\/06\/exit-82-theater-company-sponsoring-pride-events-june-20\/","title":{"rendered":"Exit 82 Theater Company Sponsoring Pride Events June 20"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pride

Pride Flag Raising, June 2020. (Photo: Evan Phalon)<\/p><\/div>\n

Toms River will celebrate Pride Month for the second year \u2013 with some of the usual modifications to comply with social distancing, such as drive-through and virtual participation. The events, including the annual Toms River Pride Festival set for this Saturday, June 20, are being sponsored by the Exit 82 theater company in downtown Toms River.<\/p>\n

The announcement was made on last week at a rainbow Pride flag raising ceremony at Toms River town hall and the Ocean County Administration Building nearby. Organizers said there was a \u201ctremendous show of support from representatives of Toms River Township, Toms River Police Department, Ocean County, New Jersey\u2019s 3rd Congressional District, Garden State Equality, PFLAG Jersey Shore, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week is also the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York, which is said to have kicked off the LGBT rights movement in the United States. This year\u2019s event organizers are posthumously honors Grand Marshal Marsha P. Johnson, the New Jersey-born black transgender activist who threw the first brick during the upheaval and also organized the first Gay Pride parade in New York City.<\/p>\n

The first portion of Saturday\u2019s event consists of a Drive-by Pride Course open from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. beginning at the entrance of Hyers Street at Washington Street, where participants will pass through an adjacent parking lot while enjoying the festivities from their rainbow-decorated vehicles. Guests are encouraged to support local businesses participating nearby and to bring personalized statement signs demonstrating their support of Pride, which could be featured in an upcoming Downtown art installation.<\/p>\n

From 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Virtual Pride provides participants with an online platform for \u201can engaging discussion on LGBTQAI+ issues with Garden State Equality, and special performances by top New York City drag queen and Toms River native Izzy Uncut, Jan of RuPaul\u2019s Drag Race fame, Lexington Banks, Asbury Park\u2019s Milian Mafia, and more to be announced,\u201d organizers said.<\/p>\n

There will be a \u201cvirtual drag show\u201d at 8 p.m. which will cost $10 to join. It will be presented at Exit 82 Theater Company\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cToms River Pride is also seeking to feature stories highlighting local LGBTQAI+ heroes and allies, which can be submitted any time to exit82theatre@gmail.com,\u201d an announcement said.<\/p>\n

\"Pride

Pride Flag Raising, June 2020. (Photo: Evan Phalon)<\/p><\/div>\n

Donations obtained during the event will go toward the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, whose mission \u201cprotects and defends the human rights of Black transgender people.\u201d The Exit 82 Theater Company said it \u201cstands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement for racial equality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to see that even in these tough times, we can come together to celebrate Pride right here in Toms River,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-3), whose staff members participated in the recent flag-raising ceremony. \u201cSince that day over 50 years ago at Stonewall, we\u2019ve seen great progress made, but there\u2019s still so much work to be done. We need to press the Senate to pass the Equality Act and state clearly that Black transgender women matter. Events like this, and groups like Exit 82 Theatre Company, are critical to ensuring the march towards progress and equality moves forward, and I\u2019m proud to stand aside you in that fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toms River will celebrate Pride Month for the second year \u2013 with some of the usual modifications to comply with social distancing, such as drive-through and virtual participation. The events, including the annual Toms River Pride Festival set for this Saturday, June 20, are being sponsored by the Exit 82 theater company in downtown Toms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[992,991,11],"class_list":["post-4172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-toms-river-life","tag-exit-82-theater-company","tag-gay-pride","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/103574230_10158381586347429_8232266646035541144_o.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}