Mansfield is Proud
June is LGBTQIA2S+ Pride Month in Mansfield
Join the Town of Mansfield in celebrating and supporting our LGBTQIA2S+ friends and neighbors this June!
PRIDE FLAG RAISING CEREMONY
- Thursday, June 1 at 4:00 PM
- at the Audrey P. Beck Municipal Building (Town Hall)
- Free and open to everyone
Mayor Moran and members of the Town Council will raise the Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride flag over the Town Hall to kick off Pride month in Mansfield.
Come celebrate, receive your own Pride flag to take home, and honor our Pride!
CELEBRATE PRIDE!
- Friday, June 9 starting at 7:00 PM
- Free and open to everyone
LOCATION CHANGE: Due to the forecasted weather, this event will be held indoors at the Mansfield Community Center (10 S. Eagleville Road) - Updated June 7, 2023 | 11:10 AM
All towns, ages, and allies are invited to join the Town of Mansfield in a celebration of Pride on Friday, June 9 on Betsy Paterson Square in Downtown Storrs!
This fun, free event begins at 7:00 PM.
Everyone is welcome to:
- Meet members of local LGBTQIA2S+ organizations and learn about local supports
- Enjoy music and selfie stations
- Enter the Freddie Mercury DIY Mustache & Pose Contest
- Pick up free flags and pronoun pins
- Stop by the UConn Dairy Bar Ice Cream Truck to purchase a frozen treat
- Customize and Tie-Dye-Your-PRIDE Shirts (suggested shirt donation: $10)
And, don't miss:
- Drag Queen Story Time - 8:00 PM
- Bohemian Rhapsody screening - starts at dark
Share your Pride with us by using #MansfieldIsProud when posting your pics on Facebook and Instagram!
Share Your Pride & Allyship
Mansfield residents and business owners are invited to pick up a free Progress Pride flag to display at their homes and businesses.
Flags will be available starting June 1 at
- Town Hall (4 S. Eagleville Road, flags will be at the entrance on Storrs Road, near the Little Lending Library)
- Community Center (10 S. Eagleville Road, Storrs)
- Senior Center (303 Maple Road, Storrs)
- Public Library (54 Warrenville Road, Mansfield Center)
Flags will also be available at the Pride Flag Raising on Thursday, June 1 at the Town Hall and at Celebrate Pride! on Friday, June 9 on Betsy Paterson Square (2 Dog Lane, Storrs).
Check back soon - more to come!
Add some LGBTQIA2S+ inclusive books to your summer reading list with these suggestions available at the Mansfield Public Library and the Mansfield Youth Services office:
Youth
- Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle by Nina LaCour (Library)
- Adventures with My Daddies by Gareth Peter (Library)
- Prince & Knight and Maiden & Princess by Daniel Haack (Library)
- Calvin by JR and Vanessa Ford (Library)
- My Rainbow by Trinity and DeShanna Neal (Library)
- Grandad's Camper and Grandad's Pride by Harry Woodgate (Library)
- The Family Book by Todd Parr (Library & Youth Services)
- Neither by Airlie Anderson (Library & Youth Services)
- My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis (Library & Youth Services)
- And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson (Library & Youth Services)
- I am Jazz! by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings (Library & Youth Services)
- Pride: the Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders (Library)
- Stonewall: A Building, An Uprising, A Revolution by Rob Sanders (Library)
- Who Are You? The Kid's Guide to Gender Identity by Brook Pessin-Whedbee (Youth Services)
- "Pink is a Girl Color" and Other Silly Things People Say by Stacy Drageset (Library & Youth Services)
- Queer Heroes by Arabelle Sicardi (Library)
- A Child's Introduction to Pride: The Inspirational History and Culture of the LGBTQIA+ Community by Sarah Prager (Library)
- If You're a Kid Like Gavin by Gavin Grimm & Kyle Lukoff (Library)
- It Feels Good to be Yourself : A Book About Gender Identity by Theresa Thorn (Library)
- This is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us edited by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby (Library)
- Melissa, Rick, and Alice Austen Lived Here by Alex Gino (Library)
- King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender (Library)
Teen/Young Adult
- The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen (Library)
- Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender (Library)
- She Gets the Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick (Library)
- The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag
- Heartstopper series by Alice Oseman (Library)
- Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People who Changed the World by Sarah Prager (Youth Services)
- The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor (Library)
- Other Ever Afters: New Queer Fairy Tales by Melanie Gillman (Library)
- Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo (Library)
- The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer (Library)
- Like a Love Story by Abdi Nazemian (Library)
- Flamer by Mike Curato (Library)
- Pet by Akwaeke Emezi (Library)
Adult Fiction
- This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel (Library)
- Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman (Library)
- Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe (Library)
- Marry Me a Little: A Graphic Memoir by Rob Kirby (Library)
- In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado (Library)
- People of Pride: 25 Great LGBTQ Americans by Chase Clemesha (Library)
- When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones (Library)
- Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair that Shaped a First Lady by Susan Quinn (Library)
- Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan (Library)
- One Life by Megan Rapinoe (Library)
- How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones (Library)
- Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington by James Kirchick (Library)
- They/ Them/ Their: A Guide to Nonbinary & Genderqueer Identities by Eris Young (Library)
- Raising LGBTQ Allies: A Parent's Guide to Changing the Messages from the Playground by Chris Tompkins (Library)
Follow the Mansfield Public Library on Facebook and Instagram for more reading suggestions all month long.
Resources Available for our LGTBQIA2S+ Residents & Allies
MY Pride:
Mansfield Youth Pride (MY Pride) group is open to Mansfield residents in grades 5-8 who are part of the LGBTQIA+ rainbow (and allies are welcome too).
MY Pride emphasizes self-empowerment, positive youth development, and building strong peer and community connections to validate and celebrate our diverse identities.
Please contact the Youth Services Department for more information about MY Pride.
E.O. Smith GSA
Please contact Amy Nocton & Liza Escott for information about this group for high school students.
Mansfield Human Rights Commission
Read more about the Mansfield Human Rights Commission here.
Tolland-Mansfield PFLAG
PFLAG Tolland-Mansfield is a chapter of PFLAG, Inc. located in and serving towns in Northeastern Connecticut. PFLAG is an organization of LGBTQ+ people, parents, families, and allies who work together to create an equitable and inclusive world. There are hundreds of thousands of people and hundreds of chapters from coast to coast who are leading with love to support families, educate allies, and advocate for just, equitable, and inclusive legislation and policies. Learn more here.
- True Colors - Resource Guide
- PFLAG (Hartford, Norwalk, SE CT, Waterbury)
- Hartford Gay & Lesbian Health Collective
- Q Plus
- Kamora's Cultural Corner
- New Haven Pride Center
- Triangle Community Center
- Anchor Health Initiative
- Connecticut Children's Medical Center
- Middlesex Health
- Yale Medicine Gender Program
- TransLifeline: (877) 565-8860
- Gender Spectrum works to create gender sensitive and inclusive environments for all children and teens.
- The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning youth.
- The mission of the It Gets Better Project is to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth around the globe.
- GLSEN: Championing LGBTQ issues in K-12 education since 1990. GLSEN works to ensure that LGBTQ students are able to learn and grow in a school environment free from bullying and harassment. Together we can transform our nation's schools into the safe and affirming environment all youth deserve.
- The Human Rights Campaign envisions a world where every member of the LGBTQ family has the freedom to live their truth without fear, and with equality under the law. We empower our 3 million members and supporters to mobilize against attacks on the most marginalized people in our community.
- GLAAD: Leading the conversation. Shaping the media narrative. Changing the culture. That's GLAAD at work.
- The Genderbread Person: Breaking a complicated concept of Gender into bite-sized, digestible pieces. So, you want to better understand gender, or need help explaining it to someone else? Used by — and contributed to by — countless people around the world and throughout the decades, the genderbread person (and all of the different evolutions of it, and ideas it evolved from) is a wonderful way to start an important conversation.
- The Family Acceptance Project® is a research, intervention, education and policy initiative to prevent health and mental health risks for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer-identified (LGBTQ) children and youth, including suicide, homelessness, drug use and HIV — in the context of their families, cultures and faith communities. We use a research-based, culturally grounded approach to help ethnically, racially and religiously diverse families learn to support their LGBTQ children.
- "Ultimate Guide to Resources for LGBTQ+ Students" - This collection of resources was recommended by a resident who found it helpful for their child.
Learn more
Continue learning about the history of Pride and the LGBTQIA2S+ experience in the United States with these resources:
Stonewall Forever: Interactive online, history of the original Stonewall Riots and ongoing stories from LGBTQ folx. People can learn and add their own LGBTQ stories and history
Gilbert Baker Foundation: History of the rainbow flag and its creator. Oral history projects. Stories of Gilbert Baker
GLBT Historical Society: Curated content of LBTQ history