Since 2017 the Marlborough Town Board has declared June as Gay Pride month in town. At last week’s board meeting Supervisor Al Lanzetta invited resident Tim Lawton to offer his comments on this annual designation.

“I want to thank you, particularly this year with the conflicts and unrest that have been happening throughout our nation,” he said. “It’s great and wonderful to live in a town where people tend to acknowledge other people for their differences or for their similarities. I’m very happy to live in a town where the Town Board actually acknowledges all of us.”

Lawton said one day, “the time will come where we will have a parade right down Route 9W and you’ll all be marching with us. Thank you very much and happy Pride.”

In a subsequent interview Lawton said he was honored to offer his viewpoint on the designation. He said the Town Board’s public statement supporting Gay Pride month, “is a pretty remarkable thing. The referendum the town passed was that every June moving forward would be recognized as Pride month. I think that by having it spoken every year just reinforces and brings it back to the public light; I think that’s very helpful.”

Lawton is worried seeing the backlash against the LGBTQ community across the country.

“In our current federal government there is no love or even tolerance of the LGBTQ community,” he said. “It’s hard to fathom how someone can have so much hate in their heart that they have to attack a specific group.”

Lawton said in the past people have flown rainbow flags, “which is generally recognized as a LGBTQ symbol.”

Lawton said it is comforting to know, “that we’re recognized as an LGBTQ family in a town where we have a number of notable LGBTQ citizens who’ve been around for a long time...There is definitely a feeling of acceptance and comfort that brings people to our area and I think that’s a good thing. One of the nicest things about Marlborough is by making this public statement, anybody coming into our town who is LGBTQ knows that they’re in a place that can be home if they choose to and I think that is important. I feel it’s unique to Marlborough because I don’t know of any other small town in the Hudson Valley that does this and I am very proud of that fact.” Lawton said when he first approached the Town Board to make this declaration, “they did it graciously and with great emphasis and without any hesitation and I think that was a remarkable thing.”

Joseph Caserto is a native of Milton and is a professional graphic artist. He splits his time between Milton and a place in Brooklyn in New York City.

“I was very proud when I heard that they did this; it shows that there’s a lot of progress that’s happened in town since I lived there and grew up there,” he said. “I knew that there are a lot people in Marlborough who are part of the LGBTQ community who did not have an easy time and this shows their support.”

Caserto noted that today the younger generation have the advantage of social media that allows far more interaction through support groups than was unavailable to him as a young man. He said when he grew up in the 1970s and 1980s Marlborough was not a very progressive town and a resolution of support like the one from the Town Board would never have happened. He is hopeful that this kind of support will help the journey of the generation now coming up. He said as a young man if you didn’t wear the ‘right’ clothes or didn’t play the ‘right’ sports, people called him a faggot.

“Swimming was not a masculine sport; that was the idea that I got,” Caserto said.

Caserto said there are a number of same sex couples who are moving into Marlborough and, “this [town board] resolution is very welcoming to them.”

Caserto now finds himself spending more time in Milton.

“Being back in town is such a different experience and I’m very happy it’s taken this direction. It’s a different town from what I grew up in,” he said. “I wouldn’t have thought thirty years ago that this would have happened.”

Supervisor Al Lanzetta said there was support for a resolution when it first came before the board because some councilpersons have members of their family who are part of the LGBTQ community.

“The board thought it was time and that is why we did the resolution and now it says that we should honor this every year,” he said. “I think it was only fitting that we do that and the board was 100 percent in favor. I was very happy with the outcome.”

Councilman Howard Baker said he is very supportive of gay rights.

“I think we all may have some personal experiences that might make us supportive of something like that and I just think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “When somebody like Tim [Lawton] comes and asks you to do [a resolution] you want to support it from the get-go and I think every member of the board feels that way.”

Editor’s note: the U.S. Supreme Court, on Monday, voted 6-3 to affirm that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 extends employment nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ workers. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin and sex. The ruling Monday extends protections on the basis of sex to a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity.