June may be over but Delaware is still celebrating Pride. Rehoboth Beach is hosting its annual Pride celebration weekend from July 18-21. 

 The celebration has everything you might expect from a Pride weekend — from dance parties to drag, the four-day celebration of LGBTQ identity has something for everyone.  

Sussex Pride, the organization behind Rehoboth Beach Pride, is celebrating its second year of organizing the events. Its mission is to “celebrate, strengthen, and support the LGBTQ+ community in Sussex County and the state of Delaware, working through a social justice lens.” This includes sponsoring events to help members of the LGBTQ community find resources, providing a platform for discussions about the future of LGBTQ rights, and hosting events like Rehoboth Beach Pride.

 The Blade sat down with David Mariner, the executive director of Sussex Pride, to discuss the weekend’s events and why celebrating Pride — as well as fighting for LGBTQ rights — is still needed in 2024.  

“LGBTQ+ equality is very much a focus of Sussex Pride,” Mariner said. “We know here in the state of Delaware, LGBTQ folks are more likely to be living in poverty and less likely to have health insurance, for example, than non-LGBTQ folks. We know that we disproportionately are impacted by substance abuse, by HIV and AIDS, by a variety of health issues.”

Reports from the Williams Institute, an organization that tracks LGBTQ statistics, show that nationwide an estimated 40% of unhoused youth, and 30% of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+.

This gap of support for LGBTQ youth, Mariner explained, was one of the reasons that Rehoboth Beach’s Pride Festival will have a raffle to win prizes. All of the money donated through raffle tickets will go to Safeguards Housing Committee, a statewide initiative to support unhoused LGBTQ+ youth.

“All the money from the raffle is going to go to support homeless LGBTQ youth in Delaware,” Mariner told the Blade. “That’s a first for Rehoboth Beach Pride. I’m most looking forward to presenting that check to the Safeguards Housing Committee and supporting young people in Delaware who are kicked out of their house because they’re LGBTQ.”

The advocacy work of Sussex Pride doesn’t stop there. Workshops will be held to help provide resources to LGBTQ members of Sussex County and the state of Delaware as a whole. These workshops include one centering LGBTQ aging with The Division of Services for Aging and Adults with Physical Disabilities, a workshop on intimate partner violence and domestic violence with What Is Your Voice, an organization that works to help those impacted by domestic abuse and a youth organizing workshop with Network Delaware.

“The advocacy that we’re doing is kind of more nuanced conversations about how we move forward together as a community,” he added. “We’re looking with a lot of our strategic partners to how we engage and move forward in Delaware. A lot of that work is kind of local, a lot of that work is at our state level.”

 Mariner added that the support from the community initially shocked him. 

“I was surprised there was as much enthusiasm as there was to be honest. We didn’t really know going into it, how people would react but we had 50 Venture slots, and we sold out relatively quickly,” he explained. “The interest has been really high.”

“I think it speaks to us as LGBTQ folks wanting to be everywhere in the state and wanting to be visible everywhere in the state. This is often thought of as a beach town where people come to vacation, but it’s also a place where more and more families live and raise their children and have queer youth and have families. There’s a lot of work to do in this area, not just in the summertime, but year round.”

The money raised and conversations held at the Pride festival, Mariner hopes, will help Rehoboth and Sussex County reach their full queer potential.  

“D.C. people in particular have one idea about Rehoboth Beach, which is amazing drag shows and a great supportive community. And that all exists in Rehoboth Beach, and it’s an amazing place, but there are other parts of Sussex County, too.” Mariner said. “And we have to be willing to leave our comfort zone and to reach out to everyone. So I hope with all the events that we do, even with this weekend, that we see LGBTQ youth coming in, that we see diverse folks participating and benefiting from the event. And we see folks from all over the county participating.” 

With this inclusive spirit in mind, the Pride celebrations will commence on Thursday night at Freddie’s Beach Bar (3 S 1st Street, Rehoboth Beach, Del.) at 9 p.m. for the Rehoboth Pride Kickoff Party. 

On Friday, Aqua Bar & Grill (57 Baltimore Ave.) hosts a Pride social at 4 p.m. Later at 9 p.m., DJ Chord takes over the music for a Pride Dance Party. Just a few doors down, Blue Moon (35 Baltimore Ave.) hosts a Pride drag show and dancing at 9 p.m.

On Saturday, the Pride festivities start with the Rehoboth Pride Festival at the Rehoboth Convention Center (​​229 Rehoboth Ave.) from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. The festival will include local LGBTQ vendors, health screenings, activities, and resource guides. Local drag queen Regina Cox hosts Goolee’s Grille’s (11 S 1st St.) drag brunch at noon. Tickets are available at Gooleesgrille.com.  

From 2-8 p.m., Freddie’s Beach Bar hosts Freddie’s Love Fest happy hour with drink specials and music. Also beginning at 2 p.m., Aqua will hold the post-Pride festival after-party until 5 p.m. with food, drinks, and music to keep the energy going. At 4 p.m. Rigby’s (404 Rehoboth Ave.) hosts Pride karaoke, where guests are encouraged to belt out their favorite Pride anthems from Madonna to Gaga.  

At 6 p.m., the Funny Girlz Lisa Koch, Vickie Shaw & Roxanna Ward host this year’s Pride comedy show at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center, which will turn into a dance party after the comedy set. Tickets are available at sussexpride.org/rehobothbeach/. At 8:30 p.m. The Pines (56 Baltimore Ave.) has queen Candi Fuentes hosting local drag legend Mona Lotts’s 60th birthday. Tickets are $5 (18+) and can be purchased at thepinesrb.com. To end the night with dancing, Diego’s (37298 Rehoboth Ave Ext) hosts a Pride party from 10 a.m.-1 a.m. 

 On the last day of Rehoboth Pride, Sunday, The Lion’s Den Candle Company (217 Philadelphia St.) hosts the Mimosas & Yoga event at 11:30 a.m. to help unwind from any hangovers or stretched muscles after a weekend of dancing. Also at 11:30, Goolee’s hosts another drag brunch show, with tickets still available on its website. The Pines will also host a drag brunch at noon and was voted “Best Rehoboth Drag Show” by Washington Blade readers in 2023. $15 tickets are available on The Pines website. At noon, Aqua is holding a Pride Bear Beer Bust with beer specials. After the Beer Bust, Aqua’s Closing Tea Dance starts at 3 p.m. with DJ Biff spinning to end Pride with a dance party.  

With a diverse lineup of events, this year’s Rehoboth Pride weekend has something for everyone and allows for the opportunity to help LGBTQ Delawareans. 

 “​​Advancing our community together is a big part of the organization, it’s a big part of Sussex Pride, and Rehoboth Beach Pride weekend,” Mariner said.