Moorestown’s third annual Pride flag raising on June 5 – organized by the Better Together Moorestown Advisory Committee – brought together community members to celebrate June as Pride Month.
“Thank you very much Moorestown Pride, thank you to the town council, thank you to everyone who had just the littlest finger involved in this, because it is so amazing to be in a town where we celebrate everyone,” said the Rev. Jennifer Bradley, a pastor.
“If someone had told me 33 years ago … that one day I would be standing up here in front of a bunch of people admitting that I’m gay and that I’m very happy and I’m married to a wonderful person, enjoying every part of life that my straight family members are enjoying, I wouldn’t believe them,” she said.
“We’ve come a long way, but we’ve got a long way to go, so I look forward to the next flag raising, too.”
Last year’s event included speeches from community leaders and the symbolic raising of the flag. Created in 1978 by Gilbert Baker, the iconic Pride Rainbow flag originally had eight stripes. The colors included pink to represent sexuality, red for healing, yellow for sun, green for serenity with nature, turquoise for art, indigo for harmony and violet for spirit, according to the website for the human rights organization OutRight Action International.
The flag now has six colors; there is no longer a pink stripe and the turquoise and indigo stripes were replaced with royal blue. The flags are meant to celebrate progress, advocate for representation and amplify the demand and drive for collective action.
“But as we proudly and joyfully raise the flag, we also take a moment to remember those folks who aren’t here with us anymore,” Bradley noted, “those folks that busted down doors coming out, making the way decades and decades ago, so that we could raise a flag, so that we could each hold a flag if we wanted to hold a flag, or not hold a flag if we don’t want to hold a flag.”
Following her remarks, the flag raisers took a moment of silence for late members of the LGBTQIA-plus community who had an impact on the lives of attendees.
“ … Those names and stories that we remembered in silence, my hope is that they do not remain in silence,” Bradley said. “My challenge to everyone is to share those names, share those stories about those people … Look at the people around you; there’s some safe people you can tell these stories to …
“There are some safe people right next to you (that) you can talk to about your friends, your family, those people who had an impact on your life, those people that (you) hopefully never forget and forever remember.”
