Laura Glesby photos
Pride flies high over the Green.
T'Mo Lawson-Dickerson: "How safe are we when our kids are still getting bullied?"
A Pride flag soared into an ashy sky over the New Haven Green. To organizers, its message of safety is critical — but not enough.
The rainbow-striped flag, selected by the New Haven Pride Center for the annual Pride Month flag-raising, was larger and more inclusive than ever this year. For the first time, it sported a circle symbolic of intersex people, in addition to triangular stripes representing transgender and Black and Brown community members.
Flying despite a wave of vitriol and increasingly restrictive policies targeting queer and especially trans people across the country, the flag’s vibrant colors brightened a sky thick with debris from wildfires many miles away.
The flag raising drew about 20 onlookers. It came a few days after a similar Pride flag raising in Greenwich generated homophobic signs in protest.
It marked a city-backed message of queer acceptance — and garnered calls for change in Connecticut.
Advocates spoke to a need for more funding, supportive school cultures, affirming healthcare policies, and stronger political solidarity with LGBTQIA+ community members.
Mayor Justin Elicker: "We are proud of who people are inside."
Pride Center Executive Director Juancarlos Soto expressed hope that “we can get to a day that everyone from our youngest to our oldest can live fulfilling lives,” adding, “we will not give up.”
Mayor Justin Elicker stressed the importance of saying that “we are proud of who people are inside,” and that New Haven is a welcoming place for queer people.
While state leaders have publicly stated that Connecticut is a supportive place for queer people, and that trans individuals fleeing other states are welcome, “other than that, a lot is not being done,” said T’Mo Lawson-Dickerson, the Pride Center’s Youth Services Coordinator.
“How safe are we when our kids are still getting bullied?” she added later.
"Their Existence Is Important"
Juancarlos Soto: "We will not give up."
Advocates called for more funding for their organizations as they receive more and more demand for basic needs like food, clothing, health care, and social support.
According to Pride Center Communications Coordinator Laura Boccadoro, the community center has heard from numerous queer-identifying individuals and families who have recently moved to New Haven or who plan to do so, seeking refuge from laws criminalizing gender-affirming medical care and restricting bathroom access, among other policies. “What a lot of them mention is that they see a lot of queer events here” that have prompted them to move, she said.
Boccadoro said that demand for the center’s case management services has doubled in recent months to about 250 requests for help per week.
“Centers like ours need more funding” to manage an unprecedented need for services, said Boccadoro.
Lawson-Dickerson envisioned offering vouchers for clothing and housing to Connecticut newcomers, in a world where the Pride Center had those resources.
Adam Cohen of Anchor Health.
Adam Cohen, the director of development at Anchor Health CT, a Hamden and Stamford-based medical center specializing in queer-friendly and gender-affirming care, said his organization is similarly seeing a spike in demand from out-of-state patients whose medical options have severely narrowed. Anchor Health regularly has to turn away patients; “we can’t take on new, non-urgent folks,” Cohen said. Provided with more resources, the organization would not have to triage the most urgent patients, he argued.
More broadly, Cohen added, the state should bolster training requirements for doctors to ensure that they are able to appropriately treat queer patients and patients with medical conditions associated with the queer community, especially HIV.
The organizations emphasized a commitment to serving every corner of the queer community — “whether you are documented or undocumented, whether you are insured or uninsured,” said Jovanni Cabanas of APNH (A Place to Nourish Health, formerly Aids Project New Haven).
School culture emerged as another pressing concern on Thursday.
Lawson-Dickerson described regular complaints from the kids and teens she works with about school communities that fail to fully support their identities. Though she praised the New Haven Board of Education for requiring that kids’ pronouns be respected, “we still have teachers and administrators refusing to abide by these rules,” she said.
In addition, many New Haven schools don’t have gender-neutral bathrooms or adequate privacy in bathrooms that do exist, Lawson-Dickerson said. They later elaborated, “There’s been times when my kids don’t go to the bathroom” until after school. “Especially as a trans or intersex person, you need privacy in the bathroom” — a place where kids often get bullied.
“Our queer youth have been going through a lot,” Lawson-Dickerson said. “They need to hear from us that their mere existence is important.”
Caroline Smith, candidate for Ward 9 alder: "I came out for the first time in New Haven. I held hands with a woman on the street for the first time in New Haven. Now I proudly stand next to the woman I love here in New Haven."
I'm not voting for or not voting for anyone because of their sexual orientation. This is a private matter and is none of my business. Plus, I really don't want to know who you sleep with... just do your job.