The Bucks County Commissioners recognized the New Hope Celebrates Pride Parade and June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
At the Wednesday public meeting, the three commissioners – two Democrats and one Republican – issued the proclamation.
While the proclamation notes the “broad strides in the direction of justice and equality,” it also states “many in LGBTQ+ community still endure hardship and mistreatment from those who would see social progress undone.”
The county will fly a pride flag outside the Administration Building in Doylestown Borough through the month of June.
In addition to New Hope Celebrates, there were representatives from the LGBTQ+ youth center The Rainbow Room and The Peace Center in Langhorne Borough.
Pride Month is observed in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots where patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City staged an uprising to defy police harassment and persecution of LGBTQ+ people. This rebellion represented the start of a movement to make discriminatory laws against the LGBTQ+ community illegal.
New Hope Celebrates accepted the proclamation and presented the commissioners with a banner, T-shirts, and a flag to thank them for the support, according to Melissa Patterson, the president of New Hope Celebrates, a nonprofit that has been around for 20 years.
New Hope Celebrates hosts events throughout the year for the LGBTQ+ community in New Hope Borough, the City of Lambertville, and beyond.
The annual Pride Parade, which is held in May, is the only one of its type that crosses state lines.
Robert Szwajkos, a member of Newtown Borough Council and the solicitor for New Hope Celebrates, told the commissioners local Pride Month events celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and its history.
“We are not unequal,” he said. “We are all equal.”
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