June is Pride month, and this is the Pride issue of Letters from CAMP Rehoboth! Rarely have I seen our writers embrace an issue theme with more enthusiasm. I didn’t go through and actually count the number of references to Stonewall in this issue, but there are many. I’m fine with that—it is, after all the 50th anniversary of that event—and of all we have accomplished in the last 50 years.▽
Memorial Day weekend may be over but summer 2019 is just getting started. Summer
is why we all came to coastal Delaware in the first place. Enjoy it while it lasts! Now that the summer high season has arrived, I occasionally hear locals announce they will not be coming downtown until September. I’m the opposite, I love the energy of Rehoboth when it is filled with visitors. I like to see the shops and restaurants full—and making enough money to stay in business even through the quiet months of winter. To be fair, I do live on Baltimore Avenue and have a parking place, so I don’t have to fight the traffic to come downtown—or much to complain about!▽
Pride Month is full of rainbows—and so is Sundance. This year’s theme—Sundance 2019—Rainbow XXXII: Ultraviolet Disco Day-Glo Sunrise—sets the stage for yet another amazing event on Labor Day weekend. Perhaps it is a little early in the season to be talking about Labor Day weekend, but it is exactly the right time to sign up to be a Sponsor, Supporter, or Host of Sundance. Sundance is CAMP Rehoboth’s largest annual fundraising event. Signing up to be a Sponsor/Host helps to fund the many programs and activities of CAMP Rehoboth. Please sign-up right now at camprehoboth.com.▽
The recent CAMP Rehoboth trip to Africa was an awesome adventure for our 41 travelers. Wielding cell phones and cameras in every size and shape imaginable, thousands of photographs were taken along the way. To make that a manageable number we asked each traveler to submit a “best shot” photo. That exhibit opens at CAMP Rehoboth on June 22, from 1-3 p.m. For more information about the upcoming CAMP Rehoboth Portugal River Cruise in October of 2020, see InBrief in this issue. For those interested in making plans for 2021, we are in the early stages of planning an Australia/New Zealand adventure. Part cruise, part land excursion, this one is going to be fun. Watch these pages and the CAMP Rehoboth website for details.▽
On Saturday, July 20, CAMP Rehoboth is happy to present the Rehoboth debut of The Kinsey Sicks at the Rehoboth Convention Center. Inspired by a Bette Midler concert during the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic, The Kinsey Sicks are described as America’s Favorite Dragapella® Beautyshop Quartet. They invite us all to resist “these new dark times with laughter, integrity, and heroically high hair....” The show does come with a disclaimer: “If you love Donald Trump, you’ll hate this show!” Ticket prices are $35, $50, and $75. A limited number of front table seats are available. Purchase tickets at camprehoboth.com.▽
In his Intentionally Inclusive column in this issue, writer Wes Combs explores the road to greater inclusion for the LGBTQ community from Stonewall to the present. Even given current setbacks, he remains optimistic that our progress will continue. So do I. “But remember,” he says, “our work is not done until all LGBTQ people achieve full equality at home, at work, and in the community.” The recent passage of the Equality Act in the US House of Representatives was a step in the right direction but that is as far as it is likely to get for now given the partisan state of our politics. So yes, while we have made progress—especially in states like Delaware where protections are in place—our work is not done.▽
But it is Pride Month, after all, so let’s celebrate what we have accomplished along the way. For a start, check out our Round-up of LGBTQ Pride songs in this issue.▽