ITHACA, N.Y. — At the Tompkins County Legislature Tuesday night, officials formally declared the month of June to be LGBTQ+ Month in the county.
About half a dozen people joined Tompkins County Legislator candidate Anne Koreman as she spoke on behalf of the Finger Lakes PULSE group and presented a rainbow flag to the legislature, while other members of the LGBTQ community supported them from the crowd of attendees. The flag will be flown on the county flagpole “as a symbol of our steadfast belief in the equal dignity of all Tompkins County citizens.”
Representative from Ithaca is Love, along with LGBTQ+ advocates from Ithaca College and Cornell Universities, and members of the public were also at the meeting to represent their communities.
Legislator Leslyn McBean Clairborne read the proclamation on the record, which references the Stonewall Inn riots in New York City in June of 1969; the efforts of the “Ithaca 50″to sue the state of New York under the premise that the inability for same-sex couples to be married was unconstitutional; and recognizing the massive contribution of LGBTQ+ people to the Tompkins County community.
The proclamation goes on to quote former President Barack Obama who said, “…our Nation has made great strides in recognizing what these brave individuals long knew to be true in their hearts –that love is love and that no person should be judged by anything but the content of their character.”
The presentation can be see in its entirety by in the live-stream of the meeting here, about seven minutes into the video.
Related: Tompkins Legislator Leslyn McBean Clairborne named Finger Lakes PULSE Ally of the Year
All photos by Kelsey O’Connor/The Ithaca Voice
LGBTQ+ Pride Month Proclamation by Kelsey O’Connor on Scribd