by
Laura Glesby |
Jan 18, 2024 3:38 pm
|
Comments
(7)
Elaine Kolb held back tears as she took in the crowd celebrating the New Haven Pride Center’s new home – and absorbed the fact that she could roll through the whole place in her wheelchair.
“This is the first time in my 74 years that I feel like I finally have come home,” she said.
Kids will sometimes make mean comments when fifth-grader Wesley Bianchine uses the teacher’s restroom at school. But all the other bathrooms are designated for either boys or girls, leaving non-binary kids like Wesley without another place to go.
“The world is not organized for transgender children,” Wesley said to a panel of alders and an audience of over 50 people.
And as a stream of students, parents, and educators insisted, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) should help change that.
by
Laura Glesby |
Nov 14, 2023 12:17 pm
|
Comments
(5)
For a decade, the New Haven Pride Center has operated out of a buzz-to-enter, windowless basement, unmarked and invisible to pedestrians in the Ninth Square.
Now, the community center is coming out — into a much larger, glass-walled, ground-floor home, where a pride flag is already brightening the front window.
by
Laura Glesby |
Oct 23, 2023 9:45 am
|
Comments
(3)
In a flurry of Pride flags, handmade crafts, and pedestrians-turned-dancers that filled the end of Orange Street in the Ninth Square, Luis Rios caught a glimpse of Tia Waters and had to say hello.
“Excuse me, is your name Bubbles?” he asked. “You’re a legend.”
by
Thomas Breen |
Sep 23, 2023 4:03 pm
|
Comments
(9)
An emailed bomb threat sent to city police and a New Haven Pride Center employee Saturday afternoon temporarily shuttered a Ninth Square block that was supposed to be hosting a Pride Week-closing celebration — but which had been canceled the day before because of expected inclement weather.
Police searched the LGBTQ+ services nonprofit’s headquarters, found no explosives, and cleared the building, and are now investigating the email threat as a potential hate crime.
A ballot petition in hand, Liam Brennan waited for the buzzer outside 84 Orange St., walked through the lobby of an architecture firm, and descended the elevator to the basement home of the New Haven Pride Center.
He emerged three hours later one signature closer to his goal of getting onto September’s Democratic mayoral primary ballot — and a clearer picture of the community center’s efforts to move above ground at a time marked by rampant transphobic legislation across the country.
by
Laura Glesby |
Jul 21, 2023 2:26 pm
|
Comments
(0)
Before she became a regular volunteer at the New Haven Pride Center — before she started teaching her friends about non-binary pronouns or exposing her preschool students to the many different forms a family can take — Karen Boccadoro learned that her 19-year-old kid was gay. And she didn’t know what to think.
by
Mia Cortés Castro |
Jun 26, 2023 9:14 am
|
Comments
(1)
East Rock neighbors decorated rainbow-colored cardstock letters spelling out the word “PRIDE” — and spoke about how that word means love, acceptance, authenticity, and support — at a LGBTQ+ community-celebrating event that doubled as a campaign stop for an aspiring first-time alder.
by
Maya McFadden |
Jun 2, 2023 10:07 am
|
Comments
(4)
Career High School sophomore Alex Alvarado struggled to hold back tears as he listened to the country’s first openly gay Black statewide elected official — and a fellow New Havener — advocate on behalf of transgender students like himself.
by
Laura Glesby |
Jun 1, 2023 5:13 pm
|
Comments
(3)
A flock of hand-folded, rainbow-colored paper cranes took flight inside Olmo Bagelry on Thursday morning, carrying a message of queer pride and affirmation.
James Baldwin, Sylvia Rivera, and Harvey Milk are now watching over the halls of Elm City Montessori School — in newly unveiled mural portraits that fit in well with the Blake Street charter school’s anti-bias and anti-racist values.
by
Maya McFadden |
Mar 9, 2023 11:35 am
|
Comments
(1)
Amid the sometimes “rocky waves” of work and class and a tough time at home, Drake Ortiz has found a refuge in Sound School’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance (SAGA) — where they and their high-school peers can be themselves and talk about everything from their favorite movies to queer-friendly field trips to how best to prevent bullying of younger students.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Feb 21, 2023 8:41 am
|
Comments
(0)
Nearly everyone is familiar with the set up of a book club: a group agrees on a book to read and then gathers a month later to discuss that book after reading it. Apply that same dynamic to a classic record and you have Album Club, one of many monthly programs at Volume Two, the State Street linchpin of both literary and lyrical offerings.
Since August 2022 the queer and feminist-centric group has been gathering once a month to discuss a classic album chosen by the participants. This Monday evening, the platter being served up was Amy Winehouse’s already-classic Back to Black.
by
Allan Appel |
Jan 27, 2023 11:00 am
|
Comments
(5)
The nation’s first Black openly gay state official met the organizers of what hopes to become the first LGBTQ-centered private school in Connecticut — and one of only a handful in the country.
Their message about being “firsts” in an era of anti-gay backlash was identical and impassioned: Don’t just be your authentic self. Celebrate that self, too.
by
Maya McFadden |
Jan 20, 2023 5:24 pm
|
Comments
(3)
Gender-neutral bathrooms. Thoughtful and caring educators. A Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) for middle schoolers. And a school mission statement that loudly and proudly supports LGBTQ students.
Those were just a handful of ideas that came to mind for the members of Elm City Montessori’s GSA when asked to dream up their ideal school.
by
Karen Ponzio |
Jan 20, 2023 9:13 am
|
Comments
(0)
Best Video filled every seat in the house and then some on Thursday, the inaugural night of Queer Film Club, a new series in collaboration with East Rock House, New Haven Pride Center, and Hamden Pride that aims to share queer-centered films in a safe and friendly environment.
The New Haven Pride Center has lost its tax-exempt nonprofit status and has replaced its executive director after failing to file multiple years’ worth of tax forms.
by
Laura Glesby |
Sep 12, 2022 4:23 pm
|
Comments
(1)
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.
“Put me on a pedestal, and I’ll only disappoint you!”
The College Street Music Hall crowd scream-sang along with Courtney Barnett.
“Tell me I’m exceptional; I promise to exploit you!”
In the pit, a teenage girl with winged eyeliner looked around to make sure she wasn’t the only one letting loose. Near her, a white-haired man in a ponytail thrashed his arms to the beat. Toward the center, rowdy 20-somethings tossed their bodies against one another; if there were ever a time to mosh, it was now.
“I think you’re a joke, but I don’t find you very fu-u-u-u-u-nny!” the Aussie rocker continued from the state, as two middle-aged women crooned the line to two middle-aged men.
In fact, at that moment, there wasn’t a single person in the hall who didn’t sing along.
by
Kimberly Wipfler |
Jun 19, 2022 11:01 am
|
Comments
(3)
It was all sunshine and rainbows on Saturday, as hundreds of folks filled Hamden’s Town Park Center with queer joy and loving community in celebration of the town’s largest-ever Pride festival.
by
Maya McFadden |
Nov 23, 2021 9:56 am
|
Comments
(6)
The Board of Education has approved a new policy that will provide school staff with professional development in transgender sensitivity and protect transgender and gender-non-conforming students’ identity, dress code, bathroom, and other rights.