Video of opening celebration at Batavia First Presbyterian Church on Monday evening.
GLOW OUT held and opening celebration and flag raising on Monday evening to kick off National Pride Month.
“This is just the beginning,” says Lauren Berger, Executive Director of GLOW OUT.
“We have a few more events planned here in Batavia, as well as across the region. This Saturday is the Orleans Family Pride picnic at Butts Park in Medina. It starts at four, and then next Wednesday our regularly occurring Artful Expressions at Wyoming County Arts Council at 530PM, and then our Batavia Pride Parade and Festival is the last Saturday of the month, on June 27th at Centennial Park. The Parade starts at noon and begins and ends at Centennial Park. We also have the Tavern Art Gallery at Go Art at the Arts Council, and a reception for that is Thursday, June 18th at 6PM.
Berger says today’s celebration is a way to open the month and welcome everybody to the activities.
“I thank Rula and the Batavia First Presbyterian Church’s decision to be that place of affirmation, of welcoming, of, you know, really just standing firm and allyship. A lot of people talk about safe spaces, and the idea of places being safe, and that physical space is something that we mean. The idea of building, you know, a structure, but also the safe space of people, and which is more than just saying we’ll tolerate you. It’s like you think of the analogy of somebody saying you can sit at their table, but for somebody who’s pulling out the chair and saying, hey, we saved you a seat, you know, there’s a difference in sort of like whether or not someone’s taking the efforts to be a welcoming place versus just saying you’re allowed in, and the Batavia First Presbyterian is one of the many places, religious establishments that take that extra step to go know LGBTQ plus people are welcome here. This is really important to us.”
