Bedford celebrates Pride Month

BEDFORD, N.Y. - If the threat of rain diminished the size of the town hall turnout, it did little to dampen enthusiasm.

At least two dozen supportive residents cheered, applauded and otherwise endorsed a clutch of speakers as the Town of Bedford, on the month’s first Saturday, renewed its solidarity with the LGBTQ community. 

Bedford’s sixth annual raising of the multihued pride flag took place outside town hall on Bedford Road on June 7, two weeks before Lewisboro launches its fifth annual observance of Pride Month next Saturday (June 21).

Bedford Supervisor Ellen Calves thanked those who gathered in the town hall driveway, undaunted by the morning’s leaden skies. 

“Your being here is such an important, powerful statement that we support everyone, everyone belongs,” she said. “You belong, we love you, we love everybody in the LGBTQ community.”

That community, comprising people who describe themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer and/or questioning, celebrates its diversity through the flag’s multiple colors.

But the pride flag, said the morning’s keynote speaker, “is more than the color of the cloth.”

 “It is the living symbol of our lifetime,” said Danté Reda, CEO of The Loft, a White Plains-based LGBTQ advocacy and support nonprofit. “Each stripe has a message: white for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for harmony and purple for spirit.” 

And in the progress flag “we see the addition of black and brown stripes—honoring people of color—and the trans stripes—pink, white and light blue—reminding us that none of us are free until all of us are free,” he said.

“I am proud to be Black, and I’m proud to be queer,” Reda declared. “And I’m proud to serve the community that doesn’t just reflect who we are, but who we are becoming.”

The flag “is not just a banner—it is a battle cry,” he said to enthusiastic applause, adding, “Everything we do is rooted in literally one truth: We deserve safety, celebration and community.”

In remarks before and after Reda spoke, government officials endorsed those aspirations.

Assemblyman Chris Burdick, who as supervisor in 2019 presided over Bedford’s first pride flag observance, said, “We can’t allow the LGBTQ+ community to feel unsafe and unwanted. We can’t allow that.”

Burdick told the audience, “Those of us who are allies must be loud and proud.”

County Executive Ken Jenkins said it was important that in Westchester “everybody is seen, heard, supported, valued and, more importantly, protected.”

Bedford Councilwoman Stephnie McCaine put the flag in perspective, noting that while it is fabric, it’s “not just any fabric. It’s fabric with meaning. It’s identity, stitched together. It’s protest you can see from a distance. It’s belonging you can raise above the noise.”

She said the flag “represents the fight for dignity, for safety, for love without shame. It has flown in celebration and in protest. And it continues to evolve—as the LGBTQIA+ community expands and as society begins to better understand and embrace its full diversity.”

Reda, for his part, invoked the words of Black activists to reflect LGBTQ struggles for acceptance. He quoted Audre Lorde, a lesbian writer who said, ‘It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept and celebrate those differences.’ At The Loft, we celebrate those differences every single day.”

Similarly, Reda said he was inspired by a gay rights advocate of decades past, Marsha P. Johnson, who said, “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.” 

“That’s not just a quote,” Reda said, “that’s a promise I work toward every single day.”

Finally, he recalled the words of Bayard Rustin, who organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. “We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers,” he quoted Rustin as saying. 

 “Let this be a reminder,” Reda told the assembled residents. “You are that angelic troublemaker. You are that movement.”

County Legislator Erika Pierce of Katonah called the flag raising a sign of community. “For those of us who aren’t in the LGBTQ-class community, allyship is critical,” she said. “Our role in this is critical.” 

“So, what does it mean to be an ally?” Pierce asked her neighbors. “It means that we have to work every day to create a safe environment for everyone in our community.”

Citing statistics showing almost 10 percent of the population falls under at least one of the LGBTQ classifications, she suggested they could be anyone’s neighbors, “even if you don’t know who those people are.”

Observing the threatening skies, Pierce had opened her remarks by saying, “There’s no such thing as rain on this parade.” And indeed, any precipitation arrived only as widely scattered raindrops.

Bedford Councilwoman Bobbi Bittker, as she has in years past, organized the town’s Pride celebration. She name-checked many who helped, noting their individual contributions, then thanked those who attended, reminding them that “you are the people who are in this community and who support this [LGBTQ] community.”

Lewisboro Plans 

Lewisboro’s Pride in the Park celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community is scheduled to get underway on Saturday, June 21, at Lewisboro Town Park, off Route 35 in South Salem. Among many attractions, the fifth annual observance will include a moon bounce castle and DJ dance party, the Drag Queen Story Hour at 2 p.m. and Pet Pride Parade at 3.