GAY PRIDE TO PLANT A RED BANK FLAG

May 25, 2012

The June 20 event, at the Two River Theater, will feature an open mic for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youths to tell their stories. (Click to enlarge)

By DANIELLE TEPPER

Joining the ranks of cities and towns across America, Red Bank is set to hold Two River Pride, its first-ever community event to commemorate the struggles and accomplishments of the gay community.

Ed Zipprich, the borough’s first openly gay elected official, tells redbankgreen that Two River Pride is a response to inquiries from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals about the absence of events during June, designated as LGBT Pride Month to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan that sparked the gay rights movement.

For years, weve been asked why we dont do an event, and its because no one ever took the initiative to start one,” he said. “So Kathy Horgan and I put our heads together, he said of his fellow member of the borough council.

May 25, 2012 - 7:51 am |

ZIPPRICH ADDS TO ‘IT GETS BETTER’ EFFORT

Feb 3, 2011

In a video posted on YouTube in support of an outreach effort for gay teenagers who may be considering suicide, Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich talks about his own sexuality and the presence of bullies in his youth.

Describing himself as “an out and proud councilman elected by the people of Red Bank, New Jersey,” Zipprich recalls that as a teenager, he knew that “by being different, I wasn’t safe, especially when it came to kids who bullied.”

“It was very painful and very difficult to go to school every day in fear that somebody would find out who you really were,” he says in the video, which is featured on the It Gets Better website among those made by average joes and celebrities such as Keith Strickland of the B-52s and comedian Margaret Cho.

“I buried who I was. I knew that who I was wasn’t safe,” he says.

February 3, 2011 - 12:47 pm |

Red Bank Green

Serving Red Bank and Greater Red Bank, NJ

GAY PRIDE TO PLANT A RED BANK FLAG

ZIPPRICH ADDS TO ‘IT GETS BETTER’ EFFORT