Party with a purpose: Bunnies on the Bayou returns to Houston after two-year break

After a two-year break, Bunnies on the Bayou is again. The favored occasion isn’t only a large get together with some fairly wild costumes, it’s additionally a profit for companies that serve Houston’s LGBTQ+ neighborhood.

“Bunnies on the Bayou is exclusive to Houston,” mentioned Jacques Bourgeois, who serves because the board’s vp. “While you inform folks about it who aren’t from Houston, they’re like, ‘What’s Bunnies on the Bayou?’ It’s a big, out of doors cocktail get together.”

Identified for its inclusiveness and expressiveness, it bought its begin as a party 43 years in the past.

“It was a means for folks in our neighborhood to get collectively and be their very own household,” Bourgeois shares. “It goes to the core of how we see ourselves as an LGBTQIA+ neighborhood.”

To raise up that neighborhood, the annual 21+ gathering developed right into a nonprofit of the identical title within the early ‘90s. 

“The LGBTQ neighborhood has gone by fairly powerful instances, you already know,” mentioned board president Div Kumar. “Politically, there may be all the time somebody that’s attacking us or judging us. It is necessary for everyone to have the ability to be happy, have a little bit playfulness, have enjoyable.”

Now, Bunnies the non-profit is 100-percent volunteer-run.

“All the things that we increase at Bunnies, every part goes again to the neighborhood,” explains Kumar. “No one is in it for egocentric causes. We’re all in it as a result of we wish to see our neighborhood get higher. We wish to advance the Houston LGBTQIA neighborhood.”

He moved to Houston in 2016 and instantly started searching for a option to join and provides again.

“As somebody who grew up being homosexual in a tradition that didn’t settle for me being homosexual, it was necessary for me to have the ability to be part of a neighborhood or a company that supported different younger folks rising up feeling snug in themselves,” Kumar mentioned.

He discovered that in Bunnies, which raises cash through quite a few occasions all year long, together with Bunnies in Warmth, Snow Bunnies and, after all, the enduring Houston get together Bunnies on the Bayou.

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“It’s an incredible place to socialize, see your neighborhood, be out and about,” Bourgeois says. “That is only a means our neighborhood has all the time partied. It’s how we come collectively.”

Whether or not you are sporting bunny ears, a bonnet, a basket or barely something, the one costume code on the Easter extravaganza is to come back as you might be.

“Bunnies could be very inclusive,” mentioned Kumar. “It’s a excellent spot for everyone to come back be snug in their very own pores and skin and see different folks like themselves out and about.”

This 12 months’s celebration will happen on Sunday, April 17 from 1 p.m. till 6 p.m. at Sesquicentennial Park in downtown Houston. (Ticket info right here.) The occasion will function dwell music, together with DJ units from Dan Slater and Tracy Younger, in addition to loads of libations.

“Take Monday off,” Bourgeois laughs.

Bunnies on the Bayou is unquestionably a celebration, nevertheless it’s a celebration with a goal.

“Sure, we placed on an enormous occasion, however each single dime from our occasion goes to our beneficiaries. Interval,” Bourgeois mentioned.

The group is a lifeline for nonprofits that serve Houston’s LGBTQ+ neighborhood.

“We increase funds for the neighborhood for cultural functions, well being, empowerment and schooling,” Kumar mentioned. “We help different organizations that want our assist.”

“Due to Bunnies on the Bayou, we have been capable of have growth of our applications, capable of have psychological well being panel discussions over at MATCH,” mentioned the group’s founder and CEO Kevin Anderson. “We have been capable of have summits, summits that particularly targeted on queer of us of shade to come back collectively and discuss their complete well being.”

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The T.R.U.T.H. Challenge first obtained funds from Bunnies on the Bayou in 2016. 

Montrose Grace Place can be a repeat beneficiary. Each Monday and Thursday, it opens its doorways to Houston’s homeless youth.

“We take specific take care of LGBTQ+ youth, ensuring we’re all the time sustaining an affirming and secure area for them. Our program was began due to the gaps in companies for LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness,” mentioned govt director Courtney Sellers.

For a pair hours a pair instances per week, the Montrose church is a spot the place children in that place can discover help.

“It’s an evening of dinner, actions, we’ve a clothes closet to buy in. So we attempt to meet instant wants, but additionally, by mentorship, long-term wants,” Sellers mentioned.

She provides that transportation is significant to this neighborhood, so one other useful resource her nonprofit supplies is bus passes.

“That is without doubt one of the issues the Bunnies grant funds: our means to supply transportation to the youth who come to Montrose Grace Place, which opens the world up for you,” Sellers mentioned.

Save Our Sisters United is a first-time recipient in 2022.

“On the core, SOSU is de facto about serving holistic wants for the trans neighborhood, so holistic as in addressing psychological wants, medical wants, bodily wellness, monetary wellness, and social wellness,” mentioned a consultant of the group. “We’ve got a really small pool of alternatives for us to get grants. So Bunnies on the Bayou, it is actually cool, as a result of it is not solely is it queer-based, nevertheless it’s additionally Houston-based.”

That is one thing Anderson echoed.

“As a Black, queer-led group, alternatives have gotten extra obtainable, nevertheless it hasn’t all the time been this fashion,” he mentioned. “The truth that they’ve spearheaded supporting queer organizations actually, it simply means the world, means so much to us.”

Because the crowds at Bunnies on the Bayou occasions have grown, so has the pot from which these grants come.

“When they can hand out these, these giant checks – $5K, $7K, $10K, $12K checks – they know that that is actually making a distinction for organizations that will not actually be capable of safe bigger quantities of funding,” Anderson mentioned

In 2019, the final time Bunnies placed on its namesake occasion, the group raised $175,000 that it then gave to fifteen nonprofits. 

“We’ve come a good distance from the place we began in 1979,” Kumar mentioned.

That’s undoubtedly one thing to have fun on Sunday.

He provides: “I feel when you might have that behind your thoughts, it feels higher whenever you’re out right here partying.”

At its coronary heart, Bunnies on the Bayou is about chosen household, recognizing that, celebrating that and elevating the neighborhood up within the course of.

“Lots of instances, folks suppose, ‘It’s only a get together,’” Bourgeois mentioned. “The get together is the cherry on high.”