Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla and the City of Hoboken invite residents to celebrate LGBTQ+ Pride Month with a flag-raising ceremony on Monday, June 6, at 5 p.m. at City Hall at 94 Washington St.
"The City of Hoboken has and will always be an inclusive home where we celebrate our diversity," said Mayor Bhalla. "I encourage all Hoboken residents to join us as we raise the Pride Flag to demonstrate our continued solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community."
"The Hoboken Pride Flag raising is an important annual event for our LGBTQ+ community here in Hoboken and throughout the county," said Executive Director of the Hudson Pride Center Elizabeth Schedl. "This day highlights the inclusion efforts that the City and all of us have made. When people drive by city hall, they'll know that Hoboken is not only welcoming and supportive but celebrates LGBTQ+ people! Hudson Pride is proud to be a part of the Hoboken Pride Flag raising and to continue our work with city leaders to support the LGBTQ+ community here in Hoboken."
"Over the past several years, our LGBTQ+ community, here in Hoboken, has grown in so many ways," said Laura Knittel, the City's LGBTQ+ Community Liaison. "We have more LGBTQ+ residents, with some raising their families here, more LGBTQ+ owned businesses, more LGBTQ+ community groups, and of course, more friends and allies who continually support and embrace us in so many ways. As we grow in the community, the deeper and more dynamic the understanding and acceptance becomes. It's so important to trust and feel safe and comfortable in the communities that we live in, and we are so grateful to inclusive cities like Hoboken because this is not always the case in America."
The City will kick off Pride Month tonight by illuminating City Hall with the colors of the rainbow. City Hall will be lit with rainbow lights every evening for the duration of June.
The Hoboken Public Library will host a Drag Queen Story Hour at Church Square Park with Harmonic Sunbeam on Wednesday, June 8, from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., as well as a Pride Book Discussion regarding Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers on Tuesday, June 21, at 6:30 p.m. at the Hoboken Public Library at 500 Park Avenue. To learn more and to RSVP to the book discussion, go to https://bccls.libcal.com/event/9254809?hs=a. Print copies of the book will be available for pickup after you RSVP to the event.
Additionally, on Saturday, June 25, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., the City will host a Hoboken Family Pride March at Maxwell Place Park. The free event, organized in partnership with resident Sam LaRoche, will include coffee and pastries donated by the Hive, popsicles, face painting, and more. For more information or to register, click here.
Hudson County celebrates Pride Month in August, and as such, the City will host additional Pride events in August, including the annual community Pride colors painting event.
Last November, for the fourth year in a row, the City received a perfect 100% rating from the Human Rights Campaign's (HRC) Municipal Equality Index (MEI), an annual examination of more than 500 municipalities across the United States relating to LGBTQ+ laws and policies.
Over the past four years, initiatives of the Bhalla administration include the mandating of all single-occupancy restrooms to be gender neutral and preventing the discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community and other minority groups for city contractors.
