The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Litchfield Pride group repainting rainbow crosswalk
LITCHFIELD — Two local mothers recently received town approval to repaint a crosswalk with rainbow colors to represent the LGBTQ community.
The rainbow crosswalk is an initiative through a recent group the women formed, called Litchfield Pride. The group has a Facebook page with the same name. The page has more than 200 members.
The crosswalk, on North Lake Street at the community field, will be repainted in June, during LGBT Pride Month. The women — along with their children and friends — first painted the crosswalk last year.
Lombardi and Carr have known each other for years and both have teenagers who identify as LGBT. Lombardi initially thought of the idea for a rainbow crosswalk in Litchfield last July, when she saw a friend’s Facebook post about one that the friend had created on Bank Street in New Milford.
“The rainbow crosswalk is one way LGBT people in our community feel welcome and safe,” said Lombardi, adding that having seen the New
Milford pride crosswalk, as well other rainbow crosswalks in other towns and cities, made her realize “it’s something that was missing in Litchfield.”
The women contacted Litchfield First Selectman Denise Raap about the idea, and after getting permission from the town to paint over the existing white crosswalk, Lombardi, Carr, their children, and some friends, painted the crosswalk with eight colors — the six colors of the pride flag, plus Black and brown, to include support for people of color.
This year, due to safety concerns regarding visibility expressed by town selectmen, white paint will be added to the crosswalk colors.
At a recent Board of Selectmen meeting, Public Works Director & Town Engineer Raz Alexe said white is more visible than color, so the combination of color and white on the crosswalk would improve visibility, especially at night or in fog.
Alexe will therefore paint a new, white, crosswalk over the existing one, and then the Litchfield Pride group will paint the rainbow colors in between the white stripes. The amount of white paint in the new crosswalk will be the same as in typical crosswalks.
“I will ensure the white (paint) will have the federal recommendation specs, so this way, the white ... has the right contrast,” Alexe said.
Litchfield Pride is now fund-rising to help purchase the colored road paint and supplies necessary to paint the crosswalk. They created a page called “Litchfield Pride Crosswalk 2021,” and have raised $1,400 to date.
River, 19, Lombardi’s child, said the rainbow crosswalk means a lot to them.
“Symbols like this may feel small, but representations of pride signal visibility. In order to understand what needs to be done to help LGB-plus people in your community, you need to start with acknowledging their existence, accepting their existence, and giving space for pride in their existence,” said River, who attends Sarah Lawrence College.
River said that, especially for the young, “searching for signs of acceptance from the world around you is a big part of feeling comfortable in the place where you live.”
“Of course, we need to be making concrete steps every day to improve the lives of those around us who face oppression and discrimination,” River said. “I hope that the crosswalk will serve as a reminder to everyone that the livelihoods of LGBT-plus people, even while at risk, remain valuable and present in all communities.”
Carr and Lombardi are now looking into forming a support group in town for young people who identify as LGBTQ. “Kids need to know that there’s a place they can go to talk about their feelings and feel safe,” Lombardi said. “That would be extremely important to have at the high school level, whether it’s through the high school or some other entity.”
Lombardi said the rainbow crosswalk is “one of those very small things that a community can do to show support for a marginalized group of people.”