LYNDHURST — The township will raise the rainbow pride flag for the first time ever on Friday and keep it flying for the entire month of June, which is celebrated as LGBT Pride Month. It will be displayed in front of the municipal building.
Christopher Valiante, a resident who was the driving force behind the project, said, “This event has nothing to do with me; this is for this generation of kids and the next generations of kids — the kids who were afraid to go to school because they were different, and raising this flag is going to be a clear and simple way to show them they matter.”
Lyndhurst joins several other municipalities in North Jersey that will display the pride flag in June, including Clifton, Glen Rock, New Milford, Ridgewood, Rochelle Park, Rutherford and Westwood.
On June 2, 2000, President Bill Clinton declared June to be Gay & Lesbian Pride Month to commemorate the June 1969 Stonewall Riots in Manhattan.
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The rainbow flag being flown at Bergen County Plaza in Hackensack. (Photo: Marko Georgiev/Staff Photographer, Marko Georgiev/Staff Photojournalist)
Nine years later, President Barack Obama expanded upon the celebration by designating June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month. The flag itself is a key symbol of LGBTQ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer — pride.
