Sussex County Pride celebration grows

Embraced by an abundance of performances and an assortment of vendors, more than 1,000 people gathered for Sussex County Pride’s eighth annual celebration Saturday afternoon, June 14.

Despite the on-and-off rain, the event at Brooks Plaza in Newton featured performances by musical performers, drag artists and a theater group.

Zoe Heath, founder of Sussex County Pride, said the group started through the local chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which held a Pride celebration as a chapter event.

In 2019, after the NOW chapter closed, Sussex County Pride became its own organization, which hosted the annual festival and other events and did advocacy work throughout the county.

For those growing up queer in the county, the only previous options for Pride events were in New York City or Asbury Park, she said, noting a lack of local, more accessible spaces.

“It’s less to change the minds of people who already have an opinion,” Heath said. “It’s more to make sure that queer people who live here and who have grown up here know that there is a welcoming space for them, that there are people who believe that they should be exactly who they are.”

Heath said the event drew 400 to 500 people last year and double that number this year. Sussex County Pride moved to its current location three years ago from the Newton Green, allowing more people to attend, she noted.

Cookie Doe, host of the event, and Amethyst Voss, August Alexia, Fantasia Fae, Lexi Pro, Maeve and Samara Lanegra were among the drag queens who performed on the center stage.

The musical artists featured were Inkie Wells and DJ Rocky, who held a dance party toward the end of the event. North Star Theater Company provided a touch of drama.

During the event, popular hits such as Chappel Roan’s “Hot To Go” and Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” rang through the crowd.

Among the vendors were Waterloo United Methodist Church, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault Intervention Services (DASI), the Mental Health Association supporting Morris and Sussex counties, the Sussex County Democratic Committee and the Sussex County Arts & Heritage Council.

PFLAG Sussex County was one of the celebration’s sponsors. Todd Gillespie, the chapter’s president, said it provides education, support and advocacy for LGBTQ community members.

The county PFLAG chapter was formed about three years ago and serves people in northern New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania and southern New York state, he said.

“It’s important to have the visibility, the representation, and just to be seen and acknowledged because we are a part of the community. We live here, we work here, we are raising our families here. It’s important to be visible.”

Indivisible Sussex County also was a vendor at the Pride celebration. Kory Loyola, one of the group’s organizers, said it was formed recently in response to what the organizers viewed as the “politics of hatred and division at the federal level.”

Indivisible Sussex County has done a lot of work on community issues, activism and charity, she added.

Ivy Casserly, who grew up in New Jersey, attended the event. She said she had moved from Morris County to California, where she was surrounded by the queer community and learned to embrace her sexuality.

“I just recently moved back to Sussex County, which in my previous experience was not the most accepting place. So to come and see my community come out in full force is so exciting, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

Drag performer Cookie Doe, who is based in Newton, said she has watched Sussex County Pride evolve from a small protest on the Newton Green to a large festival and celebration.

It is always exciting to be a part of events like this, she said.

“It’s waking up and finding that self-love. It’s waking up and giving yourself that self-security and that self-support because when you can support yourself and love yourself, you can go out and live authentically. You can have a heart full of happiness that can beam as bright as possible so that way people feel more comfortable to approach you, and you can start bringing community together.

“Because at the end of the day, we all have to work together to bring the community together. It’s not just one person; it’s not just one event,” she said. “Teamwork makes the dream work, and in order to live in a sweet world, we need more cookies everywhere.”