A Pride flag won't fly on Norwich City Hall this June. An alternative is in the works.

NORWICH — Growing up in Rhode Island as gay in the 1970s was difficult for Linda Calabro. She’d often go away to Boston or New York because it was where other queer people were.

"I used to have to take my gayity out of town," she said. "I had to move to Manhattan for a year because I felt more comfortable in the gay life of Manhattan back in 1974, 1975."

Calabro is a member of the Gay Straight Alliance from Reliance Health, a Norwich non-profit community mental health center, which recently asked city officials to consider raising a Pride flag at Norwich City Hall via an April 26 letter sent to each member of the Norwich City Council, and by speaking during public comment at the May 16 City Council meeting.

“We ask that the City of Norwich raise a Pride flag at the town hall as a strong show of support for the city’s LGBTQ+ residents and their allies. In doing so, the city will send a clear message to Southeastern Connecticut and beyond that Norwich is a safe place for the queer community,” the letter states.

LGBTQ+ Pride Month is federally recognized in June.

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For Calabro, having Norwich recognize the LGBTQ+ community would make the city more welcoming to queer people.

“We want to be a part of the right thing to do,” Calabro said.

Support for Norwich's LGBTQ+ people

Though City Council made a Pride Month proclamation last June, members of the Gay Straight Alliance don’t remember any formal Pride celebrations taking place in the city, other than ones they organized themselves.

“I think it was last year that New London was raising the Pride flag, and we definitely thought that it was time for Norwich to raise the Pride flag,” said Mary Hinton, a Quality Assurance Specialist at Reliance Health who works with the Gay Straight Alliance.

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Rev. Paul Doyle, pastor of Park Congregational Church, who is an advisor for the Gay Straight Alliance, said Norwich has always been a city that’s accepting of different cultures, so it should celebrate its LGBTQ+ population.

“We’ve always been a great city with a great diversity of people, so this is the next step to say, as LGBTQ+ folks, that we’re all a part of the community too,” Doyle said.

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Norwich Mayor Peter Nystrom said, after consulting with City Manager John Salomone, that city policy only allows the American flag to be flown on the city hall building itself, and adding additional flags may cause a safety issue, but said it would be possible for the group to work a flag raising out through Global City Norwich.

However, Nystrom wasn’t sure if the Pride flag would be up on Global City Norwich’s flagpole for the whole month, as normally the cultural flag raisings last only a day, and it usually marks a nation’s independence day. Logistically, this is because Global City uses a portable telescoping flagpole that needs to be kept stable with a boot kept under a parked car.

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Global City Norwich Liaison Suki Lagrito said that if someone would contribute their car to keep the flagpole up for a month, it would be possible.

“I’m sure if somebody wanted to make it happen, we have a very large network of people in the community that support (LGBTQ+) efforts, I’m sure that wouldn’t be a problem,” Lagrito said.

Lagrito said Norwich recognizing its queer community is something long overdue. In her time with Global City, Lagrito said people have asked her to get Pride celebrations in the city before, though she said committees for celebrations weren’t formed, and it also “wasn’t well supported,” in the past by leaders in the city. Lagrito declined to name names.

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“There’s a reason why nothing has been done in the past and why, under new leadership here at NCDC, the idea of having a Pride event is well supported,” Lagrito said.

2022 Pride flag raising  in Norwich planned

The Gay Straight Alliance and Global City Norwich are working together to hold a Pride flag raising in June, similar to how Global City Norwich has flag raisings for various cultures in the city. They hope to make it, and possibly other Pride recognition, a yearly event. A date has not yet been announced.

Dasya Butts, another member of the Gay Straight Alliance, said it would be important not only for her, but for a friend of hers, who feels nobody would accept him if he came out.

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“It just breaks my heart that he feels that way,” she said, tearing up.

Calabro said she’s glad that things are getting better for younger LGBTQ+ people.

“We’re in the millennium where it’s more accepted now, but to see the flag up there for these newcomers, it would make it much more comfortable for us, knowing that we are accepted in the city,” Calabro said.

This article originally appeared on The Bulletin: Global City Norwich, Reliance Health work on June Pride flag raising