{"id":56,"date":"2023-06-12T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T11:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/?p=56"},"modified":"2025-04-28T05:43:14","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T05:43:14","slug":"montclair-pride-festival-celebrates-inclusivity-with-palpable-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/?p=56","title":{"rendered":"Montclair Pride Festival celebrates inclusivity with \u2018palpable joy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Fynn Specchio, a community college student, traveled for an hour on Saturday, June 10, to get to Montclair to do something unusual \u2013 to dress as he wanted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Specchio is a transgender and gay 20-year-old who traveled with his boyfriend, Saylor Whiteman, a transgender man. Besides wearing his green crochet halter top, the plan was that Specchio also wanted to hang out with his boyfriend and hold hands without worrying that someone would stare at them or throw something at them, which had happened before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJust for walking together,\u201d Specchio and Whiteman remembered. \u201cWe weren\u2019t even holding hands at that point.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The couple joined about 20,000 people at the second Montclair Pride 2023, a daylong festival that took over most of Downtown Montclair. The festival was organized by<\/span>\u00a0Out Montclair<\/span><\/a>, a non-profit civil rights organization that advocates for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer\/questioning, and asexual (LGBTQ+). The event featured three stages that, with upbeat music and the performance of many state artists and advocates, celebrated and supported the LGBTQ+ community in Montclair and other towns in the area.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBeing trans in the United States is pretty scary right now,\u201d Specchio said while resting close to the Bravitas Family Stage on Park Street. \u201cBut here, I feel I can be who I am, and I could wear what I want and people would still see me as a guy and like myself instead of something that needs to be fixed or erased.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peter Yacobellis, executive director of Out Montclair and township councilor-at-large, said: \u201cWe design Montclair Pride to showcase what true inclusivity looks like. Turns out the result of everyone feeling truly welcome is a palpable joy in the air that has everyone smiling, dancing and being happy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From the first hours of the Montclair Pride Festival on Saturday, the LGBTQ+ community and allies showed up to demonstrate support. After experiencing days of hazardous<\/span>\u00a0air quality<\/span><\/a>\u00a0indexes caused by the smoke from Canadian wildfires earlier that week, people of all ages and backgrounds gathered on a clear, safer, and sunny day around the stages and vendors while dancing to the rhythm of the music, clapping along with karaoke singers, eating, drinking and sharing fun moments.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For many, the festival also felt like a clear environment from the recent rise of threats facing the LGBTQ+ community. Days before the festival, the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the country, declared a national<\/span>\u00a0state of emergency<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in response to the number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into laws across the country. Among the legislation are pronoun refusal laws,\u00a0<\/span>drag bans, LGBTQ+ erasure laws and forced student outing laws<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the country, declared a national<\/span>\u00a0state of emergency<\/span><\/a>\u00a0in response to the number of anti-LGBTQ+ bills signed into laws across the country. Among the legislation are pronoun refusal laws,\u00a0<\/span>drag bans, LGBTQ+ erasure laws and forced student outing laws<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Vanguard\n
Vanguard Theater performers pose with Albert Michaels and James Carey, relatives of transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson. (KATE ALBRIGHT\/FOR MONTCLAIR LOCAL)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cWe want to congratulate Montclair on taking strides and moving forward, becoming progressive, and celebrating the LGBTQ+,\u201d said Albert Michael, nephew of the activist Marsha P. Johnson and one of the speakers invited to Montclair Pride 2023\u2019s main stage, along with James Carey, who is Marsha P. Johnson\u2019s cousin.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to come out here and speak out against the violence that\u2019s being perpetrated against trans people of color in our family member Marsha B. Johnson\u2019s name,\u201d Carey said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Artists, many of them born and raised in Montclair, performed on the three different stages. Mariah Ayscue, a transgender artist and activist, reflected on his fight for equity through his art.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t do everything,\u201d Ayscue said. \u201cWe all have to stagger our breathing so we don\u2019t lose our breath. \u2026 The best that I can do is do it through my story, do it through the poetry, and try to connect with people in that way.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Spoken\n
Spoken word poet Mariah Ayscue performs at Montclair Pride 2023. (KATE ALBRIGHT\/FOR MONTCLAIR LOCAL)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Joe Colwell, singer, songwriter, and guitarist, his excitement before going on stage for the first time at the festival. \u201cThe spirit of bringing people together is so Montclair to me and is the value that I felt represented this town growing up,\u201d Colwell said. \u201cI\u2019m so happy that we have this festival where music is bringing people together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Joe\n
Joe Colwell performs on the main stage at Montclair Pride 2023 on Saturday, June 10. (KATE ALBRIGHT\/FOR MONTCLAIR LOCAL)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Specchio also brought his mother to the Montclair Pride Festival, which he considered a big step for her. She had had a hard time accepting the identity her son announced when he was in early middle school, and reinforced years later when he started hormone therapy on his own \u2013 his parents did not support the treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother is working on it now, but she did not accept me,\u201d Specchio said. \u201cShe called me a lot of names. She cried. For a lot of years, I knew I was trans, but I couldn\u2019t do anything about it because my family didn\u2019t accept me. My mom said I was going to turn into some horrible monster if I started hormones and it took a long time. But today, I\u2019m here with my mom and she is still a work in progress. \u2026 She\u2019s still not fully there, but she\u2019s come a long way and I really appreciate the support.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A<\/span>\u00a0report<\/span><\/a>\u00a0from The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ+ youth, warns that young people are at higher risk because of the stigma and mistreatment they receive from society. When there is an affirming community that young LGBTQ+ people can turn to, they see mental health benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLGBTQ youth who live in a community that is accepting of LGBTQ people reported significantly lower rates of attempting suicide than those who do not,\u201d the report said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The sea of festival-goers at Montclair Pride gave Specchio more than a feeling of safety; it gave him a reason to keep fighting for a place in his community. He shared that in the next few days, he will be part of a protest against the Monmouth County School Board and the actions he considers to be violations of the rights of young trans students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s so messed up that they\u2019re trying to take all the rights away from trans children,\u201d Specchio said.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fynn Specchio, a community college student, traveled for an hour on Saturday, June 10, to get to Montclair to do something unusual \u2013 to dress as he wanted. Specchio is a transgender and gay 20-year-old who traveled with his boyfriend, Saylor Whiteman, a transgender man. Besides wearing his green crochet halter top, the plan was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[146],"tags":[70,68,69,61,71],"class_list":["post-56","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-print","tag-lgbtq-post","tag-local-journalism-post","tag-montclair-post","tag-new-jersey-post","tag-pride-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13006,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56\/revisions\/13006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmonicafernandez.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}