Milford Borough Council passes Pride Month resolution

After hearing several public comments at Monday night’s meeting, the Milford Borough Council passed a resolution recognizing June as Pride Month, with Borough Council President Joseph Dooley as the sole opposing vote.

Lisa Jenkins, who has lived in Milford for over a decade, said she remembers her first June living in the area because there was a Pride Parade and flags outside of businesses.

“It made me feel like I had made the right choice moving here because I thought it was so welcoming and supportive of all people,” she said.

Jenkins cited instances in which her LGBTQ friends were filmed and followed or labeled as pedophiles or groomers. Jenkins’ child, who is a part of the LGBTQ community, previously wanted to move back after college but has since changed her mind.

“She told me she was sorry she wasn’t going to move here because the hate was seemingly everywhere in the open, and in that moment I knew the magic of this place that I loved was broken into pieces,” Jenkins said.

Janine Sesa, who has lived in Milford Borough since 2021, said she and her wife also moved to the area because they “fell in love with its charm” and felt validated and welcomed seeing the Pride flag outside TriVersity’s door.

However, Sesa said her wife, who has “never shied away from anything,” began to feel afraid that flying the Pride flag and sharing coming out stories at an event would “draw violence.”

“Her fears are not unfounded,” Sesa said, citing vandalism and the burning of a pride flag last year.

Sesa mentioned the high LGBTQ youth suicide rates nationwide and her own struggles with her mental health in the 1980s.

“I was very much loved and supported by my family, but societal messages were very strong,” she said. “You all here have a means to send a societal message.”

Sesa asked the Borough Council to pass the resolution because it would send a message telling LGBTQ people they are welcome in Milford.

“By voting for the proclamation, you’re setting a tone. You’re sending a message, and you’re saying that hate will not be tolerated,” she said. “Governments can’t change how people feel and how they think. That’ll never happen. But you can say ‘we recognize all of our residents, all of our citizens, as equal.’”

Taylor James, executive director of TriVersity Pride Center and board member at Delaware Valley Action, said TriVersity currently serves 25 families across its support groups for youth and teens.

“The majority of these kids have been fully bullied out of their schools and into homeschooling by kids, teachers, administrators, and close-minded community members,” James said.

He said many remember a time when they felt safe and welcomed and “rainbow flags lined the streets of Hartford and Broad Street.” Passing the Pride Month proclamation would help these people feel safe in Milford again, James said.

In addition, passing the Pride Month proclamation would honor LGBTQ people who have served in the military and their fight for the right to serve openly, said Milford resident Lucian Truscott.

Truscott shared a story his father told him in which Truscott’s father, serving in Korea, brought up the rear of a retreat and ordered his company over a hill to safety. When they reached the top of the hill, he said, one man set up a machine gun and fired down so the others could make it to safety, and he was killed protecting the company’s retreat.

The machine gunner was gay, Truscott said, and the company had “discriminated against him and called him names and belittled him” for two years. Later, when the machine gunner’s name was read at a memorial service, the entire company “broke down in tears,” he said.

“They knew that this guy had given his life selflessly for them despite the way that they treated him,” he said. Truscott drew a link between patriotism and pride. “Pride isn’t just a lifestyle or sexuality thing,” Truscott said. “It’s about what we all gain when we’re free and we can celebrate the freedom together, proud of who we are as individuals and as citizens of this great country and of Milford.”

Milford resident Pierre Tardy opposed the Pride proclamation because he felt it was outside the Borough Council’s purview. “Those are deeply personal and emotionally charged issues,” he said. “They are divisive. If you do that, you are required for the sake of equality to make many other resolutions.”

Tardy also said the “growing resistance” to LGBTQ people that the proclamation mentions is in part because parents do not want transgender women using women’s bathrooms and competing in women’s sports.

“Who can blame them?” he said.

Clarifying for the council in response to Tardy’s point about whether passing the resolution is within their job description, Borough attorney Jason Ohliger said Section 3301.1c of the Borough Code states the Borough Council can adopt resolutions for any purpose, including “ceremonial or congratulatory expressions of the good will of the council” and “statements of public policy of the council,” among others.

“Quite clearly under the Borough code, it’s within your job description if you choose it to be,” he told the Borough Council.

The vote was met with applause. During her comments in support of the proclamation, Jenkins said passing it would begin the “healing and mending process.”

“You may think it a small thing, but it is a huge gesture,” she said. “[It’s] a return to respectfulness in a town and a county that desperately needs it. Hate should have no home here, ever.”