Cars and open arms at LGBT Network's Rainbow Rides in Hauppauge

Of all the unusual vehicles on display Sunday at the Rainbow Rides meetup in Hauppauge — from vintage convertibles to a very modern camper van — it was a red 1957 Chevrolet 3600 tow truck that caught the eye of Molly Hendricks.

"This one’s my favorite," Hendricks said. "It’s that old and still being driven!"

Hendricks, 42, and her girlfriend, Angee Thomas, 44, had come to the event from Queens. Everyone is online these days, said Thomas, who works in real estate on Long Island, explaining one of the reasons the couple made the trip to the parking lot of the LGBT Network's headquarters.

"It’s like there’s no more face-to-face interaction," Thomas said. The car show was a chance "to mingle and meet like-minded people."

The meetup was a fundraiser for the LGBT Network, an advocacy and services organization with additional Long Island community centers in Bay Shore, Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor, and another in Astoria, Queens. Proceeds will support its Safe Schools Initiative, which Robert Vitelli, the LGBT Network’s CEO, called "the bedrock" of the organization.

The Safe Schools Initiative aims to make schools a safer, more welcoming place for LGBTQ adolescents and teenagers, by bringing several hundred anti-bullying programs to campuses on Long Island and in Queens every year. The curriculum "helps students understand what LGBT kids are going through," Vitelli said, as well as "how to help out, how to be an upstander."

Sunday's gathering featured a 1931 Ford Model A truck, a 1981 Corvette convertible in a delicious shade of cream, a 1954 metallic blue Chevy, a 1985 Toyota Cressida station wagon and a 2020 Ram ProMaster camper van — outfitted with a compact kitchen, bathroom and solar panels on the roof.

"It’s 100% off-grid," said Jeanine Nyx, 55, of Port Jefferson, the van's proud owner.

Thomas Neokleous, owner of the vintage Cressida with his husband, James Murray, said he’d loved these cars back in the ’80s and searched for 10 years until he finally found one for sale on Craigslist.

The couple, who live in Stony Brook, came to the event "to support the LGBT Network, and to enjoy the beautiful day," Neokleous, 52, said.

Murray, 56, added it was fun to show the car to children. He said, "They’ve never seen anything like it!"

Not all car shows would feel so welcoming, Murray said, but this was "a safe place."

The LGBT Network’s schools program began 30 years ago, Vitelli said, but "we continue to see the same need, which is LGBT kids are bullied, kids who are perceived to be LGBT are bullied."

According to a 2024 survey on youth mental health by the Trevor Project, an advocacy group, nearly half of LGBTQ young people between ages 13 and 17 experienced bullying in person last year and more than a third had been bullied online.

That bullying has clear detrimental effects on school performance and mental health: According to the Centers for Disease Control, 2 in 10 LGBT children reported missing school last year because they feared for their safety, and more than half reported "poor mental health" in the past month.

The Trevor Project found that LGBT youngsters who had been bullied were three times more likely to attempt suicide than those who had not.

The LGBT Network also runs training programs for teachers and staff, "giving them the tools and information to address bullying" and to prevent it — "to create a safe space for LGBT kids, and really all kids at the end of the day," Vitelli said.

The Rainbow Rides event aimed to support that mission, he added, not just financially but also as "a way to engage the broader LGBT community and others who don’t identify as LGBT. This is an event for everybody."