Rainbow Pride Flies High

Hamden raised a rainbow flag at Town Hall for the first time to launch Pride Month — and lifted the spirits of LGBTQIA+ community members looking to live in a more aware and affirming town.

Twenty intergenerational Hamdenites gathered Wednesday evening for that first-ever ceremonial, local launch of Pride Month, expressing gratitude to live in a place that feels safe while pushing for more open celebration and education.

“It’s about time Hamden did something!” Jacky Forcucci, the chair of Hamden’s Pride Steering Committee, said as she stood alongside Mayor Lauren Garrett in front of Freedom Park.

Forcucci, 33, formed the committee this year alongside her wife, Amanda Forcucci, 41, who serves as the director of health and physical education for Hamden Public Schools.

“We wanted to show everybody: Hamden does have pride,” Jacky Forcucci asserted.

“Hamden is a place that affirms and values our diversity, and this is what this flag represents,” Garrett stated.

The Forcuccis acknowledged Garrett and her administration as change agents who are supporting a robust month of pride programming this June. In late May, the town teamed up with a local pavement company, Guidelines LLC, to turn a white crosswalk by the middle school into a series of colorful steps. On Thursday, the town is helping to host an educational forum and dinner from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Thornton Wilder Auditorium. 

And on June 18, Hamden will have another fun first: a full-scale pride celebration with food trucks, drag-queen story hour and dog photography.

Septuagenarian Hamden resident Sue Denis got a preview of one of those activities Wednesday as she posed for photos with her dog Kody by the flagpole, both of them decked out in rainbow wear.

“I’m here because I’m a lesbian,” she told the Independent. ​“I came out when it wasn’t fashionable. I fell in love with a woman at 30 years old, and I thought, okay, I guess I’m a lesbian. She’s been my wife for 42 years.”

To Denis, the flag raising represented a fundamental shift in how non-heterosexual and non-cisgender people are seen. ​“I really appreciate that there are pride events — because it means that in my lifetime, things have actually changed.”

“Keep in mind that the rights and the privileges we have today haven’t always come easy to us,” Jacky Forcucci noted. And while Hamden is a relatively progressive place, she said, other communities are still being hit with new restrictions of rights for LGBTQIA+ people. Forcucci pointed to Florida’s ​“Parental Rights in Education” legislation, known by opponents as the ​“Don’t Say Gay” bill, as an example. 

“We are very fortunate to live in Hamden,” she said.

Then piercers from Burning Hearts Tattoo passed out pride-themed stickers and the crowd cheered and pulled out their cameras as children took turns pulling the multi-colored flag high into the sky.

“Hamden’s safe, but this makes it feel safer,” Hamden High schooler Julian Jenkins, who came out to the event with their peer Alan Leeper, said as they stared up at the rainbow. 

Hamden is home, Jenkins pointed out, to places like Anchor Health, one of Connecticut’s only trans- and queer-led health centers. Jenkins said that their gender non-conforming friends have been able to access free binders and support services there, an opportunity that other youth with limited transportation and financial options may struggle to locate.

“Not a lot of places have a flag up. Now Hamden does,” Jenkins summed up.

The Forcuccis said they hope to see the kind of education and care Jenkins referenced embedded in the town’s public systems.

For example, in addition to the town-wide programs they have planned for the coming month, the Pride Steering Committee has been implementing new policies in schools to assist children in articulating and accessing their identities.

For the first time this year, students were given an opportunity to fill out a form with their pronouns and chosen names so teachers would know how to accurately refer to them.

“It’s fine that we discuss our values as a family,” Amanda said — ​“but it’s important that our children also find love in a community that has embraced our family.” As she spoke, her two kids, Johnny and Sawyer, munched on colorful cookies prepared for the occasion.

Amanda is leading new efforts with the Board of Education’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee to educate teachers and school staff about how to create inclusive and respectful classrooms through professional development requirements, and she’s hoping to soon establish physical safe zones and safe spaces within schools for youth.

The Pride Steering Committee also aims to educate residents across Hamden looking to learn more about sexuality and gender identity. 

“I used to identify as bisexual; I slowly have learned that I identify more as pansexual,” Jacky Forcucci said. ​“My parents always thought of my sexuality as a phase. It took me being in my 30s and married to a woman for them to realize it was just part of who I am.” 

Individuals looking to better understand themselves, to support their family and/or friends, or to become stronger allies should attend Thursday night’s community dinner, the Forcuccis urged. That event will feature speakers like Katy Tierney, the medical director at Middlesex Health Center for Gender Medicine and Wellness, and Tony Ferraiolo, a life coach and advocate for transgender youth. Audience members will be able to ask the panelists questions with the option to maintain anonymity. 

The Forcuccis said they started the steering committee after launching a Facebook page last year intended to bring together LGBTQIA+ community members.

“I can’t believe how much traction it got,” Amanda said. ​“It just keeps growing and growing.”