Government Neighbors

Bucks County Commissioners Recognize Pride Month

The Bucks County Commissioners celebrated LGBTQ+ Pride Month by issuing a proclamation and flying a Pride flag.


Credit: Charlotte Reese/County of Bucks

The Bucks County Commissioners recognized June as LGBTQ+ Pride Month.

At the Wednesday public meeting, the three commissioners – two Democrats and one Republican – issued the proclamation.

While the proclamation notes the “broad strides in the direction of justice and equality,” it also states “many in LGBTQ+ community still endure hardship and mistreatment from those who would see social progress undone.”

The county will fly a pride flag outside the Administration Building in Doylestown Borough through the month of June.

There were representatives from New Hope Celebrates, the LGBTQ+ youth center The Rainbow Room, and The Peace Center in Langhorne Borough.

Pride Month is observed in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots where patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City staged an uprising to defy police harassment and persecution of LGBTQ+ people. This rebellion represented the start of a movement to make discriminatory laws against the LGBTQ+ community illegal.

New Hope Celebrates accepted the proclamation and presented the commissioners with a banner, T-shirts, and a flag to thank them for the support, according to Melissa Patterson, the president of New Hope Celebrates, a nonprofit that has been around for 20 years.

New Hope Celebrates hosts events throughout the year for the LGBTQ+ community in New Hope Borough, the City of Lambertville in New Jersey, and beyond.

The annual New Hope Celebrates Pride Parade, which is held in May, is the only one of its type that crosses state lines.

Robert Szwajkos, a member of Newtown Borough Council and the solicitor for New Hope Celebrates, told the commissioners local Pride Month events celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and its history.

“We are not unequal,” he said. “We are all equal.”


About the author

Tom Sofield

Tom Sofield has covered news in Bucks County for 12 years for both newspaper and online publications. Tom’s reporting has appeared locally, nationally, and internationally across several mediums. He is proud to report on news in the county where he lives and to have created a reliable publication that the community deserves.