BELLOWS FALLS-"Pride organizations everywhere are responsible to embrace National Coming Out Day as a rallying cry for equality, safety, and freedom," say members of Bellows Falls Pride. On Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 10 a.m., they will unfurl the historic 14-foot-by-25-foot Sacred Cloth, known Section 93, of the original Key West Sea-to-Sea Rainbow Flag to recognize National Coming Out Day.
Mark Ebenhoch of Key West, Florida, and Brattleboro, the steward of Section 93, will oversee the unfurling.
Following the unfurling, attendees and residents are invited to participate in the nationwide "Postcards to Swing States" project from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Ciao Popolo restaurant.
Bellows Falls Pride says in a news release that the goal is "to send 500 completed postcards to Ohio residents ahead of the 2024 presidential election, which is considered a life-or-death moment for the LGBTQ+ community. The national project aims to send 25 million postcards to 11 swing states."
Coffee and refreshments will be available during this time.
The Flag will be hung from the top of the Windham Hotel, formerly the site of the iconic Andrews Inn (1973–1984) in downtown Bellows Falls, to the street. Andrews Inn offered bars, discos, lodging - a safe place for rural and urban LGBTQ+ people from up and down the East Coast who traveled by train to gather in the heart of downtown Bellows Falls. The building now houses Ciao Popolo.
Section 93 is one portion of the historic Rainbow flag sewn together in 2003 by Gilbert Baker in Key West, Florida. His goal was to create a 1.25-mile-long flag in the original eight colors (compared with the six colors that became more common). That flag marked the 25th anniversary of the 1978 flag originally created by Baker.
On the Sacred Cloth Project Facebook page, Susan MacNeil writes the Sea-to-Sea Flag was later cut into sections, and Section 93 is preserved as the Sacred Cloth. It has traveled the globe to be displayed at celebrations, occasions of mourning, and historic moments. Section 93 was displayed in downtown Orlando in June 2016 following the deadly Pulse nightclub shootings and has returned to Orlando each year on the anniversary of the tragedy.
This Town and Village item was submitted to The Commons.