Contact: Tharaha Thavakumar - Catherine Doyle - PittsfordCommUNITYgroup@gmail.com

Press release:                                                                                                          4/12/2023

Thanks to the NYCLU’s swift action, the Town of Pittsford has reversed its decision to charge security fees for our Family Friendly Story Time  event, featuring readers in drag. We agree with the Town Supervisor Bill Smith that any further action would be counterproductive and that we have provided adequate security for the event.  We look forward to hosting an age appropriate family friendly event this weekend.

The location for this Saturday’s event has been changed to a local bookstore, Book Culture (28 S. Main Street, Pittsford) and is at maximum capacity.  We thank the owner Chris Doeblin for supporting  our event.  We look forward to hosting future events in the Pittsford Recreation  Center free of charge, including our next Family Friendly Story Time, featuring different readers in drag on Sunday, April 23rd from 2-3 p.m. Registration is not yet open and will be required.

Pittsford CommUNITY thanks everyone who has reached out in support in the past week.  Your offers of encouragement, alternate locations, and funds are deeply appreciated.  We look forward to expanding our efforts with your assistance.

As we plan for our next major event, the 3rd Pittsford Pride parade, we wish to call attention to changes in the Pittsford  Park and Recreation Department's policies that went into effect after our Story time was announced.  The public is no longer allowed to reserve the  Port of Pittsford gazebo and other open community spaces; new rules effectively preclude their use by nonprofits such as Pittsford CommUNITY.  

We call on the Town Board to examine these policy changes in an open and transparent manner to ensure that the taxpayers of Pittsford have the ability to use town facilities.  “Reservation for events to be publicly promoted to the general public are not allowed” has been added to the recreation center room use rules and the Pavillion reservation rules. Additionally the wording is subjective and can now cause people to be prohibited from future facility use for breaking any rules.

We continue to ask the town for a public statement of support to the LGBTQ+ community.  We would like those who caused harm to engage in a restorative meeting with us to begin to repair that harm. This was hurtful, stressful, unnecessary and discriminatory. We thank the community for its support and look forward to a successful event this Saturday.  We also thank the New York Civil Liberties Union,  the Human Rights Campaign and the numerous residents for their advocacy on our behalf.