The Village of Oak Park joins communities across the country and around the world in recognizing Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer/Questioning (LGBTQ) Pride Month throughout June.
Pride Month celebrates the diversity and achievements of the LGBTQ community, while also raising awareness for the community’s fight for equal rights.
The Village of Oak Park has a long history of supporting LGBTQ issues. In 1989, Oak Park’s Human Rights Ordinance was amended to bar employment and housing discrimination for gays and lesbians.
The Village secured domestic partnership benefits for Village employees in 1994.
And in 1997, Oak Park established a Domestic Partnership Registry for same-sex couples, the first municipality in Illinois to do so.
The rainbow flag, the iconic symbol of the LGBTQ movement, is flown all year outside of Village Hall.
Oak Park was also one of the first municipalities in the country to make diversity a matter of public policy by formally adopting a written statement that embodied the importance of openness and acceptance to quality of life in a community. Read the Village’s Diversity Statement at www.oak-park.us/diversitystatement.
Pride Month is held in June to honor the 1969 Stonewell Uprising in Manhattan, considered a turning point in the Gay Liberation Movement.
For more information, contact DEI@oak-park.us or 708.358.5405.