The power of Pride is undeniable.

As LGBTQ Pride Month is commemorated in June, a pair of New Jersey towns are marking the occasion for the first time this weekend.

Both Toms River, the seat of Ocean County at the Jersey Shore, and iconic university borough Princeton will host their first-ever Pride celebrations on Saturday, June 22.

The current political climate is inspiring folks to speak out for their cause, according to Toms River's Exit 82 Theatre Company co-founder Keely Davenport.

"Now more than ever it does feel important for folks to feel safe and to make our community safe and to say, ‘We’re not going anywhere’ and ‘We’re looking forward to change’ and ‘We’re not going to let anyone take away our rights’ or ‘We don’t want to slide backwards,’ " Davenport said.

Exit 82 is spear-heading the day-long, all-ages event that will include a festival on Robbins Street from noon to 5 p.m. with games, activities and vendors.

The theater's main space, 73 Main St., will host a 1 p.m. drag bingo, a 4 p.m. open mic and an 8 p.m. drag show by Izzy Uncut.

There will be noon and 4 p.m. seatings of a Spill the Tea drag brunch at the 600 Main Victorian Tea Room, then a family gathering with local organizations providing opportunities to learn, connect, get resources and engage in self-expression at 1 p.m. at the Exit 82 Studio, 34C Main Street.

Artisan's, 1171 Hooper Ave., will host a 6 to 8 p.m. happy hour.

(A day pass, including access to the drag bingo and open mic, is $20. Tickets for the Izzy Uncut performance are also $20.)

The Ocean County Board of Freeholders made headlines last week when it announced its intention to recognize and support Pride Month. The Toms River Township Council recognized Pride Month last week.

It's part of a notable shift in the historically conservative Ocean County, where in 2005 and 2006 the freeholder board denied a request from Prosecutor's Office investigator Detective Lt. Laurel Hester to bequeath her pension to her girlfriend, Stacie Andree.

Hester had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in October 2005. The freeholders granted her request in January 2006, and Hester died at the age of 49 the following month.

Earlier this month, approximately 200 counter-protesters took to FirstEnergy Park, home of minor league baseball team the Lakewood BlueClaws, to rally against the supporters of a local rabbi who had called the team's June 8 Pride Night "an abomination."

(See footage from that counter-protest in Lakwood in the video at the top of this story.)

Saturday's event is "definitely a step in the right direction, particularly for a place like Toms River that’s traditionally more conservative than a lot of areas in New Jersey," said Jonathan Petro, Democratic candidate for mayor in Toms River.

"It's great to see even just Pride flags on our downtown businesses, and having people be supportive and willing to support this type of endeavor has really just been great for the town,” said Petro, who, along with his husband, is a lifelong Toms River resident.

Exit 82 Theatre's event is a collaborative effort with a number of local businesses and Petro, also chairman of the Greater Toms River Chamber of Commerce, said that inclusion and representation is a key part of the effort to bring attention to downtown Toms River.

“We’re trying to make it more trendy and have people come out and bring in new businesses," said Petro, "and being more inclusive has been helpful for getting the younger generation, like the millennials, to come out and support local businesses.”

"​Feeling the support of our neighbors and from Toms River township, from the community, from the mayor, from the council-people and from our local neighbors and business friends has been amazing," said Davenport. "I think the response is very telling of why we need this event in the first place. I think our community is ready to come together and to celebrate equality and diversity and culture and inclusion.”

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the June 28, 1969, uprising at the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, where a riot broke out as police raided the bar, enforcing a law against selling alcohol to homosexual patrons.

The Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee held the first Gay Pride March in June 1970 and the modern gay rights movement was born.

By 1972, Gay People Princeton had launched. Members of that organization will march in the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice's inaugural Princeton Pride Parade, stepping off at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 22, from the Princeton municipal building, 400 Witherspoon St., followed by an after-party at the Princeton Family YMCA, 59 Paul Robeson Place.

Robt Seda-Schreiber, chief activist at the Rustin Center, said more than 1,000 people are expected to turn out on Saturday.

“People want to come out and they want to support and love each other and respect each other and be kind to each other," said Seda-Schreiber, "and when you put out a call for people to have the option to do that, they obviously both literally and figuratively come marching.”

Saturday's parade, Seda-Schreiber said, will be both a celebration of the progress made thus far by the LGBTQ community and "a recognition of how far we have yet to go."

“People are realizing that this is not a matter of culture or religion or belief, it’s a matter of family," said Seda-Schreiber. "This is our family. This is who we are. And I think it’s also a matter of identity. I think people are realizing this is who we are. These are not choices. These are not lifestyles. These are identities. These are our names. These are who we love, and this is our lives.

“And I think it’s a wonderful, beautiful thing that people are finally realizing that, seeing that in their brothers, their sisters, their mothers, their fathers, their aunts, their uncles, their cousins, their coworkers, their teachers, their students. All of us coming together finally and realizing that it’s just about love.”

Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice Princeton Pride Parade, 11 a.m. Saturday, June 22, stepping off from Princeton municipal building, 400 Witherspoon St. For details, visit www.rustincenter.org/pride-parade.

Toms River Pride celebration, noon to 10 p.m. Saturday, June 22, presented by Exit 82 Theatre, 73 Main St., Toms River. For tickets, a full schedule of events and more information, visit www.exit82theatre.com/events/pride.

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