D219’s first Queer Prom will be hosted on April 9 at Niles West in the Black Box from 5 pm – 9 pm. 

Seniors Zucchious Kerl Rosal and Nina Cajuste are the main organizers and have been working on this since the beginning of the school year to make it a reality. 

“I’ve had this idea since the beginning of the school year and ever since I told Nina, we’ve been working together nonstop. Being a queer student of color at Niles West I felt like those safe spaces we speak of and thrive to have for LGBTQIA+ students aren’t in abundance,” Rosal said. “Prom is one of them and in its tradition brings everyone together to feel the nostalgia and ecstasy of high school and the future unknown but this time, just us, queer people edition! We live in a society, specifically a heteronormative one and I want to break that system by just having a queer prom where we all have the space to be seen, celebrated, and loved without judgment or bias. Without the prying eyes of straight people.” 

The theme of this year’s Queer Prom will be Paris is Burning. 

According to Rosal, “In my journey of studying American queer history, I came across Pose on Netflix one night and I was struck by the characters and story’s magnificence. That included the way they walked the runway, how they performed so confidently on the stage, and how a family isn’t always biological, and that despite the world’s pain and projection, we keep each other safe as a community.”

Netflix’s Pose drew inspiration from stories of Black and Latine trans women in the ballroom and drag culture in 1980’s New York amidst the AIDS Epidemic. 

While Rosal and Cajuste are the main organizers, a committee of students from both Niles West and North was formed. The committees are in charge of picking decorations, the timeline, marketing, entertainment, setting it all up, etc.

“The reason we are throwing this is to give queer kids a place to celebrate and come together. It’s a celebration of queerness. It’s also to honor and celebrate the trans black and latine folk who fought and continue to fight for queer freedom,” senior committee member Dharma Delahanty said.

For many students, this is a huge step in the right direction. “This finally gives us, members of the lgbtq+ community, a space where we don’t have to tone down our identities to accommodate the discomfort of our peers,” junior Briyanna Manzaneres said. While ticket sales are now closed, there is more information on the Instagram account queerpromd219 for those interested in learning more.