Pride Appeal

Dear Members and Friends of Dignity/New York,

Happy Pride! As we look back over the past year, we have much to be proud of, from our 50th anniversary celebrations to our progressive, inclusive liturgies in person and online, our warm and welcoming community, and our many social and outreach activities. We continue to be a unique community of LGBTQI+ people and allies within the Roman Catholic tradition, where we can speak our truth without fear and be our whole selves.

As usual, we have a busy schedule of Pride activities planned. We will be participating in the Queens Pride Parade on Sunday, June 4. Our annual Pride Liturgy and reception will be held on Saturday, June 24, at 6:30 PM at St. John’s. We are excited to share that our homilist will be Maddie Marlett, co-facilitator of the Dignity Young Adult Caucus. On Sunday, June 25, we will take part in our annual Witness at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and then the NYC Pride March.

We come to you once again, as we do every year at this time, to ask for your financial support. The attached financial report shows our income and expenses over the first six months of the current fiscal year. As you may know, we count heavily on our Pride Appeal to help cover the difference between our weekly collections and our annual expenses.

In addition to our usual activities, this summer two of our members, Brian Frank and Catherine Buck, will be among the pilgrims representing us and all of DignityUSA at World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. The Steering Committee would like to make a significant contribution to their expenses, and your contributions will help us do that. By being present as out LGBTQI+ people, our pilgrims will be a beacon of hope and affirmation for all the LGBTQI+ people throughout our church who cannot be visible.

This year we are sending out physical Pride Appeal letters as well as email letters. The Pride Appeal letter will also be posted on our website: www.dignityny.org You may respond by sending a check in the enclosed reply envelope to our mailbox (address below), by using the donate button on our website, or by online banking.

You may also use the reply form to renew your annual membership, which is a joint membership in Dignity/New York and DignityUSA. The fee is $60 per individual, or $120 per couple. However, membership is available to all regardless of financial ability, so please let us know if you would like to be a member but need financial assistance to do so.

We thank you in advance for your continuing generosity, and look forward to seeing you at our Pride activities and throughout the coming year!

The Steering Committee of Dignity/New York

Chris Alberti, Danny Larkin, Tom McLoughlin, James Osbourn, Lewis Speaks-Tanner, Jeff Stone, and Daniel Velásquez