Last year, Rick Ellis stood on the curb and watched the third annual Pride parade that marched through Bordentown City.
“It just came over me, I started to cry because I lived here my whole life and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing not only from the gay people, but from the people of the community,” Ellis recalled, noting people “were out on the street cheering us on.”
Ellis and his partner of 14 years Maurice Smith were named the grand marshals of the fourth annual Pride and Community Day on June 29.
He told the crowd that gathered at the Riverline parking lot before the start of the parade that it’s important to feel great in their hearts.
“Feel pride within yourself and have no shame,” Ellis said. “Don’t apologize ever.”
Bren Jobes welcomed the crowd.
“Every year this event grows and grows,” Jobes said. “When I started this four years ago, it was such a simple grassroots event. I started this because there were no Pride events in Burlington County [at the time].”
As the event grew, Jobes noticed the many families with children that came to the event. That is when Jobes reached out to Stephanie Corbo-Pecht, co-owner at Bordentown Home for Funerals for the second year of the event. They teamed up to create an area for kids for the event in the parking lot on Crosswicks Street.
“I add community day to this because it’s so important to have your community behind you, no matter your race, no matter your gender, no matter your sexuality, it’s all about community,” Jobes said. “When you have your support of your community, it means the world to you.”
Jobes told the crowd to enjoy the day. People were able to head to Old City Hall to add to the National Aids Quilt. Capital Health officials were on hand to provide testing, free consultations and tutorials. And cat adoptions and voter registration information were also available.
Bordentown City Mayor Jennifer Sciortino presented a proclamation and said it was “so great to see the support” from the communities in both the city and Bordentown Township.
“I saw families coming out of their house in every neighborhood with their flags and everything else and it just feels incredible,” she said.
Sciortino said it’s important to continue the support and “electing allies across this country.”
“… Right now at this very moment, the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] is tracking 527 anti-LGBTQ bills and legislatures across this country,” she noted. “Many of them attacking trans and nonbinary youth being used essentially as political pawns forced to endure harrowing consequences of politics.
“This year of all years is more important than ever to exercise your voice at the ballot box. My soon to be wife has organized voter registration over at Old City Hall … we’ve seen what happens when allies get elected and communities feel that affect.
“Bordentown is prime example,” Sciortino said. “You have chosen to elect an openly gay mayor. We’ve now had our fourth annual Pride parade that gets bigger and better every year thanks to Brenna.
“We have Little House of Hope that is spreading love and solidarity all across town. Our County Clerk Joanne Schwartz just finished performing same sex weddings at Old Historic City Hall.”
Schwartz told the crowd that she performed a ceremony for a couple that moved to New Jersey from Florida “because they couldn’t stand the politics in Florida.”
One of those allies, Sciortino said has been Assemblyman Herb Conaway Jr.
“I’m proud to be with you today,” he said. “I’m proud to be surrounded by so many excellent elected officials who understand what inclusion actually means [and] who understand what valuing individuals and individuality means.
“And who focuses on one of the important tenets of our constitution – equal protection under the law. Everyone should be treated fairly under the law. Everyone should be able to strive to be the best they can be in their communities and be protected as they strive to live their lives.”
Bordentown Township Committeeman Eric Holliday said showing one’s support “really does make a change.”
Holliday shared he didn’t “come out” his first seven years as an officer with the New Jersey Department of Corrections. He said his chief was gay and made it easier for him especially in the 1990s in law enforcement to come out.
“Let me tell you when I came out, it was the best thing I ever did,” adding his colleagues “accepted me 100%.”
