{"id":12164,"date":"2025-06-25T01:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T01:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/12164\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T01:01:17","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T01:01:17","slug":"local-advocate-reflects-on-47-years-of-pride-in-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/12164\/","title":{"rendered":"Local advocate reflects on 47 years of Pride in Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla<\/strong> \u2013 Tuesday marks 47 years since the first Pride Celebration in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

It all started at Willowbranch Park as a picnic in Riverside.<\/p>\n

That park now honors different parts of LGBTQ+ history in the city through murals and plaques, thanks to the efforts of the AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The project\u2019s founder, Richard Ceriello, has been in Jacksonville for it all — from the very first picnic.<\/p>\n

MORE PRIDE MONTH COVERAGE<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Ceriello (he\/him) has lived in Jacksonville since 1976 and has watched the city change greatly over the years when it comes to LGBTQ+ acceptance. The thought of it makes him emotional.<\/p>\n

AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida founder Richard Ceriello. (Elijah Morris\/WJXT)<\/p>\n

\u201cGosh, you\u2019re gonna make me cry,\u201d he said in a recent interview with News4JAX reporter Chris Will<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m happy to ever live this long to have seen Jacksonville evolve to the point which it is. I\u2019ve been here a very long time, and I love this city, and to see it come into its own maturity, its own color, it makes me feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t always that way, Ceriello acknowledged.<\/p>\n

When his partner, Tony O\u2019Connor, died much too young at age 32, Ceriello wasn\u2019t free to grieve openly.<\/p>\n

Richard Ceriello and his partner, Tom O\u2019Connor, who died of AIDS-related illness at age 32. (Provided by Richard Ceriello)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were many nights I spent in the emergency room and then had to report to work that next morning. I couldn\u2019t tell anybody. I would have lost my job for sure,\u201d Ceriello explained. \u201cI had to be at work. Nobody knew at work \u2014 even the day he died. I had to call in sick because I couldn\u2019t tell anybody.”<\/p>\n

Ceriello remembers O\u2019Connor fondly.<\/p>\n

\u201cA better person you\u2019ll never meet. Far better than myself. I\u2019m quick to admit,\u201d Ceriello said.<\/p>\n

And now, he and others who lost loved ones to AIDS-related illnesses in Jacksonville have a peaceful place to grieve, where it all started in Willowbranch Park.<\/p>\n

Willowbranch Park now honors different parts of LGBTQ+ history in the city through murals and plaques, thanks to the efforts of the AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida. (Elijah Morris\/WJXT)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was filled with graffiti at one time, tagged with gang tagging and sexual comments,\u201d Ceriello said, describing the state the park was in before it was adopted by the AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida. \u201cWe wanted to get rid of this and also do credit and honor those in our neighborhood who have passed away from AIDS-related illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also among the memorials is one for Daryl Roman Burt II, a Jacksonville man who died in the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando on June 12, 2016.<\/p>\n

Ceriello acknowledged that Pulse hit the LGBTQ+ community hard, not only because of the 49 lives lost, but also because of the significance clubs and bars have always held as a safe space for the community.<\/p>\n

Willowbranch Park now honors different parts of LGBTQ+ history in the city through murals and plaques, thanks to the efforts of the AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida. (Elijah Morris\/WJXT)<\/p>\n

All the way back to the Stonewall Inn, where an uprising launched the gay rights movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were where the community came together for information, activism and protection,\u201d Ceriello said. <\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s grateful that culture has shifted so much, even in the nine years since the Pulse attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny nightclub, you\u2019ll find (LGBTQ) people dancing together. It really doesn\u2019t seem to matter, and that\u2019s great,\u201d Ceriello said.<\/p>\n

Clubs and bars have always held significance as a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community. (Elijah Morris\/WJXT)<\/p>\n

Ceriello knows he and other advocates have played a role in laying the groundwork for that change, and he\u2019s excited to see what can happen for the next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just one small piece of a larger puzzle and a longer timeline. I\u2019m glad to have been able to do what I could do for the park,\u201d Ceriello said. \u201cThere are people coming up behind me who are dynamos, and they\u2019re gonna do a wonderful job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making the next chapter of LGBTQ+ history in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla \u2013 Tuesday marks 47 years since the first Pride Celebration in Jacksonville. It all started at…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[12868,5229,9865,718,3188,723,7310,5603,9863,9864,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-12164","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-aids-memorial-project-of-northeast-florida","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-celebrating-pride","11":"tag-community","12":"tag-fl","13":"tag-florida","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-lgbtq","16":"tag-pride-month","17":"tag-pride-month-2025","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114741305951226072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}