Mansfield is Proud
Join the Town of Mansfield in celebrating and supporting our LGBTQIA+ friends and neighbors this June!
June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in Mansfield
At its May 9, 2022 meeting, the Town Council voted unanimously in favor or authorizing Mayor Moran to issue a Proclamation recognizing June as LGBTQIA+ Pride Month.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, Antonia Moran, Mayor of the Town of Mansfield, Connecticut and on behalf of the Mansfield Town Council, hereby proclaim and recognize June 2022 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Plus (LGBTQIA+) Pride Month in the Town of Mansfield and urge citizens to actively promote the principles of equality, love, and acceptance throughout the community.
PRIDE FLAG RAISING CEREMONY
- Tuesday, May 31 at 4:30 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 10 at 7:00 PM
- Betsy Paterson Square (2 Dog Lane)
- Free and open to everyone
All towns, ages, and allies are invited to join the Town of Mansfield in a celebration of Pride on Friday, June 10 on Betsy Paterson Square in Downtown Storrs!
This fun, free event begins at 7:00 PM.
All towns, all ages, and allies are invited to:
- Meet members of local LGBTQIA+ organizations and learn about local supports
- Enjoy music, trivia games, and selfie stations
- 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
- Love, Simon screening - starts at dark
Share your Pride with us by using #MansfieldIsProud when posting your pics on Facebook and Instagram!
Pride Day at Mansfield Senior Center
On Friday, June 10, the Senior Center invites folks to come to the center showing their pride. Wear the colors of the Rainbow! Sign up for lunch and enjoy a Pride-themed dessert! Please sign up for lunch by June 8.
Free Ride to Celebrate Pride!
We will be providing a bus to the Pride Celebration on June 10. The bus will leave the center at 6:45pm and returning at 8:15pm. Folks can sign up by filling out the form in the June SPARKS (available at the center or here) or by calling the center at 860.429.0262. Space is limited.
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 (entrance on Storrs Road, near the Little Lending Library)
- Senior Center
- Public Library
Flags will also be available at the Pride Flag Raising on May 31 at the Town Hall and at Celebrate Pride! on June 10 on Betsy Paterson Square.
Laps for Pride
The Mansfield Community Center is hosting Laps for Pride throughout the month. Participants may swim lengths in the Community Center pool, walk or jog laps on the indoor track or around one of the looped trails like Merrow Meadow or Bicentennial Pond, then log the laps taken through June 24 at mansfieldcc.com in support of Pride Month initiatives. A free personal training session at the Mansfield Community Center will be awarded from among the participants.
For more information, please call 860.429.3015x0
Film Screening at Mansfield Senior Center
The Mansfield Senior Center will host a screening the award-winning documentary Disclosure: Trans Lives on Screen on Thursday, June 30 at 1:00 PM.
Disclosure is an unprecedented, eye opening look at transgender depictions in film and television, revealing how Hollywood simultaneously reflects and manufactures our deepest anxieties about gender.
The screening is free. To assist with planning, please call the Senior Center to sign up before June 30: 860.429.0262.
Add some LGBTQIA+ inclusive books to your summer reading list with these suggestions available at the Mansfield Public Library and the Mansfield Youth Services office:
Youth
- And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson (Library & Youth Services)
- I am Jazz! by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings (Library & Youth Services)
- Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love (Library)
- Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack (Library)
- A Family is a Family is a Family by Sara O'Leary (Library)
- The Family Book by Todd Parr (Youth Services)
- My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis (Library & Youth Services)
- Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman (Library)
- Princess Princess Ever After by Katie O'Neill (Library)
- Pride: the Story of Harvey Milk and the Rainbow Flag by Rob Sanders (Library)
- Neither by Airlie Anderson (Youth Services)
- 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 (Youth Services)
- Pugdog by Andrea U’Ren
Teen/Young Adult
- Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan (Library)
- I am J by Cris Beam (Library)
- I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (Library)
- Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin (Library)
- If I was Your Girl by Meredith Russo (Library)
- How I Resist: Activism and Hope for a New Generation by Maureen Johnson (Library)
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz (Library)
- It’s Not Like it’s a Secret by Misa Sugiura (Library)
- Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People who Changed the World by Sarah Prager (Youth Services)
Adult Fiction
- The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (Library)
- This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel (Library)
- Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman (Library)
- The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer (Library)
- The Gods of Tango by Carolina De Robertis (Library)
Adult Nonfiction
- Boy Erased by Garrard Conley (Library)
- Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein (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)
- Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens by Eddie Izzard (Library)
Follow the Mansfield Public Library on Facebook and Instagram for more reading suggestions all month long.
Resources Available for our LGTBQIA+ Residents
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.
- 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 LGBTQIA+ 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