Culture & Community | Hamden | LGBTQ | Pride Month | Arts & Culture
Rose Pawlikowski and Alisha Martindale. Both identify as queer and both are members of Hamden Pride. Lucy Gellman Photos.
The bright colors rose against a slate gray sky, bursting into a neat, angular rainbow. On one side of the flag, thick bands of black, brown, blue, pink and white undulated in a crisp V. Beneath them, a small crowd applauded a first in their town’s 236-year history.
For the first time ever, Daniel Quasar’s inclusive Pride Flag is flying over Hamden’s Freedom Park this month, in bright celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride at the town’s civic center. Wednesday night, town residents, elected officials, elementary through high school students and members of Hamden Pride gathered at the Dixwell Avenue park for a ceremonial flag raising and laughter-laced kickoff to Pride Month.
The month, which was born to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall Riots, runs from June 1 through 31.
"It means everything,” said Amanda Forcucci, who helms an LGBTQIA+ Task Force for the Hamden Board of Education and serves as curriculum director for health and physical education in the Hamden Public Schools. “It's more than a ceremony. It's more than the flag. It's what it represents. It's part of our identity, our family.”
Hamden Pride is a new coalition of queer educators, artists, social workers, town officials and Hamden residents bringing Pride to the town one rainbow-patterned event at a time. The group came together earlier this year, when Amanda’s wife Jacqueline formed and chaired a steering committee for the June celebration. In a series of bi-monthly meetings, committee members planned multiple events meant to amplify queer voices, from community discussions to the town’s first drag queen story hour.
Those continue with an LGBTQIA+ Educational Community Forum at Thornton Wilder Hall Thursday night at 5 p.m., and a day-long Pride celebration on June 18 at Hamden Town Center Park. It is the first Pride fest since 2019, which marked the inaugural celebration for the town. Last month committee members and town officials also painted the crosswalk outside of Hamden Middle School rainbow, adding a pop of color to the intersection of Dixwell Avenue and Sanford Street.
"It kind of just came at a perfect time with Covid and feeling kind of cooped up," said Jacqueline Forcucci, who goes by Jackie. "I've always wanted to do Pride events within the town.”
Mayor Lauren Garrett.
Wednesday, the committee’s vision came brightly to life, dampened by neither low-hanging stormclouds nor an afternoon drizzle that followed the ceremony. At 5 p.m. sharp, Mayor Lauren Garrett raised the flag surrounded by a number of Hamden Public Schools students, including the Forcuccis’ 11-year-old son Johnny and two year old daughter, Sawyer. The couple, who moved to Hamden for its diversity in 2019, helped Sawyer as she leaned in with her little hands.
In an interview with the Arts Paper afterwards, Garrett said that she sees the flag raising and Pride Month events as fulfilling part of her campaign promise to the town. Last year, she ran and won on a platform of making Hamden more diverse, inclusive, and accepting. Her partnership with Hamden Pride comes as the town’s public schools are also in the midst of growing their work around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She wants the mayor’s office to be an active and enthusiastic part of that, she said.
“It's amazing,” Garrett said as attendees milled around with miniature rainbow flags and stickers. “You know, sometimes we have hard days, and doing stuff like this … it feels great. This is part of being an affirming town and validating our diversity.”
Around her, members of Hamden Pride posed excitedly for photos, caught up with students who’d come out to the event, and made big, loud and bubbly introductions after meeting largely by screen for the last several months. Rose Pawlikowski, a member of Hamden Pride and social worker with the Hamden Collaborative Learning Center (HCLC), said she was thrilled to see the event take shape.
In her job at HCLC, Pawlikowski works with the Gender Equity Club and the Pride Club, both dedicated to making the school a more open and affirming place. As an out lesbian, she said she’s glad to see that the work extends beyond the confines of the school, and into Hamden’s public spaces. Freedom Park is highly visible: it sits across the street from Hamden Memorial Town Hall, at the corner of Whitney and Dixwell Avenue.
The flag, with bands added for Black, Latinx, and trans members of the LGBTQ+ community, announces itself proudly, reminding passers-by that Pride started as a riot 53 years ago this June.
"It's incredible,” she said. ‘I always knew from working at the high school and HCLC how accepting our town can be, but that doesn't necessarily always come through.”
Jacqueline Forcucci, 11-year-old Johnny Forcucci, Amanda Forcucci, and Sawyer Forcucci. Jacqueline and Amanda are expecting their third child in July.
Seated on a raised brick ledge, Johnny and Sawyer munched happily on sugar cookies decorated with the same flag. Both children sported rainbow shoes (Sawyer wore tie dye crocs and Johnny rocked a rainbow-colored band on his flip-flops) and waved small Pride Flags. Bright, hand-dyed rainbow pasta waited for them at home. Jacqueline Forcucci took a seat beside them, and praised the town for its work.
For her and her wife, she said, it’s important that their kids grow up surrounded by a community that reflects the place where they live. LGBTQ+ representation is part of that, she said. In her own life, she identifies as bisexual or pansexual.
“My wife and I could go to Pride events all the time and we'd have a great time, but I think that it's important for kids to see it too,” she said. “You never know what their future may hold, and I don't want them to be met with close-minded views or opposition from an early age.”
Amanda Forcucci also took the moment to sit with her children and reflect on the afternoon.
For her, the flag raising was both invigorating as a Hamdenite and deeply personal as a queer woman. Born and raised in a Roman Catholic household in Southington, she often felt like two huge, intimate parts of her identity were at odds with each other, she said. She didn't officially come out until she was a student at Southern Connecticut State University.
"It opened this other part of my identity that just felt right and made sense," she said. "My parents did have lots of questions, but they were always loving. I was very lucky. They didn't always understand at first, but as time and education ... they kept learning."
Four years ago, she and Jacqueline made the decision to move their family to Hamden, where she worked in the school system, "for its rich diversity." Every year, her belief that it was the right move has grown. This year, she said, she's excited to celebrate Pride all month long alongside neighbors, teachers, kids, city officials and a few furry friends who made it out Wednesday.
"Kids, they don't bat an eye if anyone is 'different' from the mainstream," she said. "It doesn't matter. The fact that Johnny here has two moms, no one cares. It's like 'Oh, cool man.' And then it's on to the next thing, like 'What do you watch on t.v.?' And that was important for us to be in that environment."
She added that she’s proud of Hamden for taking steps in its schools and public spaces to make people feel more welcome. She recalled adding her flourish to a rainbow crosswalk outside of Hamden Middle School last month, and knowing that something special was happening in the town. When Mayor Lauren Garrett offered her a roller covered in bright paint, her whole body began to shake involuntarily.
"I didn't expect it," she said. "This overwhelming emotion of it being more than paint and more than the colors."
Learn more about Hamden Pride at their Instagram or their website.