Alyssa MacKenzie

Q&A: Residents Launch ‘New Canaan Pride 2021’ for June

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Dozens of rainbow flag signs and window clings featuring the hashtag #NewCanaanPRIDE are appearing on residential and commercial properties throughout town—the result of a local grassroots effort to mark Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer or LGBTQ Pride Month here in New Canaan. New Canaan’s Hilary Ormond, Julia Stewart, Marley Thackray, Tami Wilkinson, D.J. Kornell, Alyssa MacKenzie, Shona Goldenberg and an organizing committee of 10 others have launched a “New Canaan Pride” Facebook page that has swelled to 360 members in just two weeks, and have sold dozens of the signs (to cover the cost of producing them). In all, more than 150 lawn signs and 75 window clings have been sold. We put some questions to Stewart to learn about how the idea to bring Pride Month to New Canaan started, how it’s being received and what the organizing group plans. New Canaanite: Tell us about “New Canaan Pride 2021.”

Around Town

NewCanaanite.com Introduces Editorial Advisory

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As owner and editor of NewCanaanite.com, I’m thrilled to announce that we’ve created the news site’s first editorial advisory. Four longtime residents have agreed to serve on it: Laura Budd, Julia Stewart, Rob Mallozzi and Doug Zumbach. In this capacity, they’ll review and provide feedback on all opinion pieces that appear on NewCanaanite.com under my byline or the generic site byline, prior to publication, as well as recommend topics that we should be covering for editorials and news stories, and responding to a wide range of questions from me regarding New Canaanite’s tone, voice, coverage plan and guidelines. The need for an editorial advisory arose out of a decision to publish endorsement letters prior to the 2017 local elections, and my own feeling that New Canaanite ought to have a standing group of trusted readers/advisors to review such opinion pieces before they’re made public. While serving on the editorial advisory does not necessarily mean that each member will agree with every opinion piece, it does mean that each such post will get full vetting before them.