Newtown Welcomes Pride Month With Flag Raising At Borough Hall

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — Applause filled the air Friday evening as Newtown Borough lifted the Pride Flag into place in front of the historic Newtown Borough Hall.

The flag will remain on display throughout June in celebration of Pride Month, which marks the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City and the birth of the modern day gay rights movement.

The flag will remain on display throughout June in celebration of Pride Month, which marks the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City and the birth of the modern day gay rights movement.

Barbara Simmons, clerk of the Newtown Friends Meeting and the director of the Bucks County Peace Center, joined Newtown Borough Councilman Josh Philips in leading a brief ceremony in the front yard of the historic borough hall.

“It is so important to have a Pride Day in Newtown because we want to be an inclusive community where everyone feels welcome,” said Simmons.

Joining Simmons and Smith was Newtown Borough Mayor Tara Grunde-McLaughlin who spoke about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Gathered at Newtown Borough Hall for the flag raising.

From left: Mayor Tara Grunde-McLaughlin, Barbara Simmons, Councilman Josh Phillips and State Rep. Perry Warren.(Jeff Werner)

State Senator Steve Santarsiero.

“As we wave the Pride flag this year on the 250th anniversary of our Declaration of Independence, we consider what we fought for so long ago and what we continue to protect today,” she said. “Those core values we recognize - life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - are tied closely to those hard won rights that allow all of us to love and do without losing our job or our home, to marry those we love, to not hide who we are and to not risk our lives doing so.”

She continued, “However, recent censorship, funding cuts and anti- LGBTQ legislation threatens these rights for many of our community members. Today in Newtown we celebrate coming together, welcoming all and we commit to protecting life, liberty and freedom to pursue our best selves,” she said.

Nine speakers addressed a gathering of supporters, including Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie; State Senator Steve Santarsiero; State Rep. Perry Warren; and Ron Ricci, chairman of the borough’s Human Relations Commission.

Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie. (Jeff Werner/Patch)

Joanna Bachner reads a poem. (Jeff Werner/Patch)

George School student NaNa Courtney-Bacher.

Also addressing the gathering were George School senior NaNa Courtney-Bacher and poet Joanna Buchner.

"I love this month for many reasons," said Courtney-Bacher. "One, I love seeing people’s faces during parades, whether it’s their first Pride parade or their 10th Pride parade; the looks are so beautiful and pure and euphoric.

"A second reason why I love this month is that not only do I get to celebrate who I am, but I get to celebrate other people, most of whom I've never met, but already I can connect with them on a deeper level, whether it’s our self-realization, or self-acceptance, or our coming out journeys.

"We all have different stories, but they hold so many of the same feelings and thoughts, and I love hearing them," Courtney-Bacher continued. "To me, this is what Pride Month is about, and why Pride Month is important. Hearing, sharing, and connecting with everyone and their stories. From the dawn of creation to the end of all time, we will be here, proud and queer, telling our stories."

Ryan Segura, the vice president of New Hope Celebrate, brought greetings from nearby New Hope.

“Our theme this year (in New Hope) was Pride in Full Color. We landed on this theme because we currently live in a world where the LGBTQ+ community is being treated like we should be operating on a scale of black and white. That is not who we are. We are a diverse palette. We are a spectrum of color,” said Segura

“Michelle Obama once said, ‘When they go low, we go high.’ When I see news headlines that announce book bans, anti-LGBTQ legislation, and violence amongst us, it’s so hard not to go low. I get angry. I lose hope.I want to fight the bad fight - but what does that accomplish? That’s the fight that puts our community in the black and white.”

He continued,”But the good fight - the one that means I get up at dawn so a young child can have a parade and feel seen and live in full color - is the one I want to participate in. The good fight is all of you - right here, right now - creating a community, instilling hope in one another, telling the world that, yes, our canvas does include some black and white, but we are so much more than that. We are every shade of every color and we will not be washed away.”

We Are Here by Joanna Buchner

We are here
And we exist
We will hide in the shadows no longer
If you don’t like us fine
That’s your problem
We will be loud
We will scream
We will scream so much it hurts
We will be bright
And obnoxious
You will see us from a mile away
We are here and we’re here to stay
This is centuries of pent up anger bursting at the seams
Centuries of lying to ourselves and hiding ourselves
Centuries of love we could not give
But now we can so we will love so much we bleed
We will make our problems your problems because you are our problems
We will make ourselves known
We will make ourselves seen
Because you refuse to see us
You will know our names
You will know our faces
You will know our history
This is for us and our ancestry
This is for the queers who came before us
The queers who could not be queer
The lovers who could not love
The transgenders who could not transition
The aces and aros who had to push their limits
The spectrum you diminished
We are here and here we stand
Hand in hand
Across the land
You may take our rights but you could never take our rainbow
Our colors will shine and you will see
We are here