JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Tuesday marks 47 years since the first Pride Celebration in Jacksonville.
It all started at Willowbranch Park as a picnic in Riverside.
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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.
The project’s founder, Richard Ceriello, has been in Jacksonville for it all -- from the very first picnic.
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.
“Gosh, you’re gonna make me cry,” he said in a recent interview with News4JAX reporter Chris Will. “I’m happy to ever live this long to have seen Jacksonville evolve to the point which it is. I’ve 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.”
But it wasn’t always that way, Ceriello acknowledged.
When his partner, Tony O’Connor, died much too young at age 32, Ceriello wasn’t free to grieve openly.
“There were many nights I spent in the emergency room and then had to report to work that next morning. I couldn’t tell anybody. I would have lost my job for sure,” Ceriello explained. “I had to be at work. Nobody knew at work — even the day he died. I had to call in sick because I couldn’t tell anybody."
Ceriello remembers O’Connor fondly.
“A better person you’ll never meet. Far better than myself. I’m quick to admit,” Ceriello said.
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.
“This was filled with graffiti at one time, tagged with gang tagging and sexual comments,” Ceriello said, describing the state the park was in before it was adopted by the AIDS Memorial Project of Northeast Florida. “We wanted to get rid of this and also do credit and honor those in our neighborhood who have passed away from AIDS-related illness.”
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.
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.
All the way back to the Stonewall Inn, where an uprising launched the gay rights movement.
“They were where the community came together for information, activism and protection,” Ceriello said.
He said he’s grateful that culture has shifted so much, even in the nine years since the Pulse attack.
“Any nightclub, you’ll find (LGBTQ) people dancing together. It really doesn’t seem to matter, and that’s great,” Ceriello said.
Ceriello knows he and other advocates have played a role in laying the groundwork for that change, and he’s excited to see what can happen for the next generation.
“I’m just one small piece of a larger puzzle and a longer timeline. I’m glad to have been able to do what I could do for the park,” Ceriello said. “There are people coming up behind me who are dynamos, and they’re gonna do a wonderful job.”
Making the next chapter of LGBTQ+ history in Jacksonville.
