Westfield Pride Inc.

06/30/2026

06/30/2026

June 30, 2026

The life of Alexander the Great (he/him) offers one of antiquity’s clearest glimpses into same‑sex love at the highest levels of power. Alexander’s lifelong bond with Hephaestion—his closest companion, general, and the person he trusted above all others—was shaped during their youth, when they forged an enduring intellectual and emotional partnership. His overwhelming grief at Hephaestion’s death in 324 BCE remains one of history’s most vivid expressions of LGBTQIA+ love. We know Alexander’s life in remarkable detail thanks to ancient historians such as Plutarch and Arrian, whose accounts draw on earlier eyewitness sources now lost. Their writings preserve both his achievements and his contradictions. A Macedonian king of Greek ethnicity, Alexander’s legacy is undeniably complex. His empire was built through brutal conquest, the destruction of cities, and the deaths of countless civilians and soldiers. Yet he also founded more than twenty cities, encouraged cultural exchange across three continents, spread Greek learning, and helped spark the Hellenistic age—one of the most intellectually vibrant eras in world history. We intentionally include Alexander as one of our tributes not to celebrate empire, but to recognize that LGBTQIA+ people have always existed—powerful, flawed, complex, and deeply human.

https://www.westfieldpride.org/

06/29/2026

June 29, 2026

The life of Rebecca Cox Jackson is trailblazing and unique. Born to a free family, Jackson defied the racial and gender restrictions at a time when Black women were expected to remain silent. At 35, while trapped in an unhappy marriage to a Philadelphia carpenter, she experienced a life‑changing night of prayer during a violent storm. Soon after, Jackson left the marriage and became an itinerant preacher with a reputation for her sermons, healing and prophetic words. In the decade that followed her itinerant work, Jackson met Rebecca Perot through her Philadelphia prayer circle. The two formed a profound spiritual and emotional partnership that today is widely recognized as part of early LGBTQIA+ history. They eventually entered Shaker life together, founding the only known Black Shaker community in the country. Jackson later wrote Gifts of Power, a rare spiritual autobiography by a 19th‑century Black woman, in which she spoke of her 35‑year covenantal union to Perot. It now stands as one of the earliest documented same‑sex, marriage‑like partnerships in American history— and the earliest known Black example.

https://www.westfieldpride.org/

06/28/2026

June 28, 2026

On this 57th anniversary of the Stonewall rebellion, we honor George Segal, the heterosexual American sculptor who created a powerful public tribute to LGBTQIA+ history. In the late 1950s, Segal emerged as a leading figure of the Pop Art movement, known for his technique of casting life‑size figures using medical plaster bandages. He brought this human‑centered vision to Gay Liberation, the first permanent public artwork to honor q***r lives. Created in 1979 and installed in NYC’s Greenwich Village in 1992, the sculpture portrays two same‑sex couples in gentle, unguarded, and courageous poses. When the Stonewall National Monument was established in 2016, Segal’s work became its memorable centerpiece. Today, Segal’s figures stand as witnesses to the 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn and to the LGBTQIA+ liberation movement that rose in its aftermath. Segal’s sculpture affirms the emotional truth of four ordinary people and the humanity we all share in our ongoing quest for connection.

https://www.westfieldpride.org/

06/27/2026

June 27, 2026

Eric Marcus is a journalist and oral historian who amplifies LGBTQIA+ voices in the quest for acceptance and understanding. A Vassar College alum with a Columbia University master’s in journalism, he has long studied the stories that shape q***r history. His landmark Making Gay History draws on intimate, first‑person interviews begun in the 1980s, illuminating activists such as Frank Kameny, Marsha P. Johnson, and Sylvia Rivera and tracing their courage in less -accepting times. Marcus’s broader work spans LGBTQIA+ identity, mental health, and memoir, with bylines in The New York Times, Newsweek, and USA Today. From Stonewall’s heroes to AIDS‑crisis organizers, he has preserved LGBTQIA+ history for future generations. He hosts the Making Gay History podcast and co‑produces Those Who Were There, preserving Holocaust survivor testimonies. His extensive oral‑history archive lives at the New York Public Library’s Manuscripts and Archives Division. Married to Duncan Osborne, a veteran LGBTQIA+ journalist, he is a longtime resident of New York City.

https://www.westfieldpride.org/

06/26/2026

Worth a peek…❤️🧡💛💚💙💜