Pride Flies High Over Green

Laura Glesby Photo

The flag marks PRIDE New Haven, eight days of LGBTQIA+ events.

A rainbow burst through the Monday afternoon fog in the form of a Pride flag newly raised over the New Haven Green, marking the start of a week of LGBTQIA+ celebrations amid growing resistance towards transgender rights in the state and across the country.

New Haven Pride Center staffers and community members gathered on Monday to raise the flag and mark the second day of PRIDE New Haven, an eight-day series of local events reflecting on and reveling in queer identities. 

Raising a flag is really important because it is a visible sign to the world that the city of New Haven stands with LGBTQ people,” said Patrick Dunn (pictured above), the director of the New Haven Pride Center.

The week’s schedule includes art shows and food tastings; panels on disability inclusion, anti-racism, and corporate rainbow capitalism”; and the annual PRIDEFest celebration on Saturday at the New Haven Green. The full schedule is accessible online here, and the 2022 Pride Guide” pamphlet is available here.

New Haven Pride Center staff members.

Mayor Justin Elicker (pictured above) pointed out that this year’s Pride arrives as resistance to LGBTQIA+ rights has regained strength in recent months. He pointed to Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Stefanowski’s recent statements opposing a state law that lets transgender student athletes compete on the sports teams that match their gender identities, and to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ recent opinion in the Dobbs decision suggesting that the court should reconsider its ruling on gay marriage. Elicker called for national leaders to codify the right to gay marriage in law. 

New Haven welcomes every single person, because we see people as humans,” said Elicker.

Siduma CSO Tim Zheng, CEO Rebeca Frey, research assistants Everin Chacho and Rosario Arellano, and principal scientist Sam Dundon.

A contingent of five from Siduma Therapeutics, a company in New Haven’s growing biotech sector, appeared at the flag-raising decked out in rainbow accessories of their own to show support.

Tim Zheng, Siduma’s chief scientific officer, described feeling his apprehension about entering a scientific field as a gay man. Gay people are typically associated with arts,” he said. He recalled telling a mentor in the early 1990s, I’m too gay to be a scientist.”

The next day, that mentor returned to Zheng with a list of gay scientists who had found success in the field. Now Zheng hopes to be a visible mentor for younger queer scientists, he said.

Rashawn Lee (pictured) came to the flag-raising event with a song to perform: Family,” from the musical Dreamgirls. It’s a song that Lee (aka Robin Fierce) often sings as a drag queen, an art form that’s recently become his full-time job.

It works for all of my communities,” Fierce said of the song after the event. The Black and Brown community, the queer community… For us, it represents coming together.”

As the song progressed, Lee’s emboldened voice climbed higher, along with the flag:

We’re not alone anymore. Now there are others there.
And that dream’s big enough for all of us to share.
So don’t think that you’re going, you’re not going anywhere.
You’re staying and taking your share, and if you get afraid again, I’ll be there…

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