Our Story
A vital voice in Jersey City committed to bringing the LGBT community together
Partners Napoleon Paul Mendoza and Miguel Cardenas co-founded Jersey City Lesbian & Gay Outreach in May of 2001. Paul and Miguel posted flyers all over Jersey City calling for all LGBT's to join them to meet and form a community group. Out of these meetings came "Jersey City Lesbian and Gay Outreach" later to be called JCLGO for short.
Very quickly JCLGO grew into an all-volunteer group and in only 3 months hosted Jersey City's 1st LGBT Pride Festival on August 25, 2001. The theme of the Festival was "Strength Through Visibility." During this time JCLGO spoke to the Jersey City Council and Mayor Cunningham on behalf of the LGBT community and has continued to work with City and County Governments including Mayor Jeremiah Heally's Office regarding the needs of our community ever since. JCLGO members knew even then the best way to prove to the larger Jersey City neighborhood that the LGBT community had truly arrived was to show it through visibility. At the 2001 Pride Festival JCLGO did just that with an attendance of over 1,000 strong. In November 2001 JCLGO was honored with a "Special Recognition Award," at Heritage of Pride's (NYC Pride) "Annual Thank You Party" for our work on our 1st Pride Festival.
The 2002 Festival themed "Come Together-Build a Community" focused on hope in humanity, perseverance in darkness and optimism in life. From the Festival stage, the missing landmark from Manhattan's skyline was a constant reminder of the many people we lost in the terrible tragedy of September 11th. David L. D'Amico an openly Gay police officer in the Monmouth County Prosecutor's office and Tom Ryan from Fire Flag lead our moment of silence.
2003 "Power In Pride." - It became evident to us all, that once we were visible as a community, there was power in that unity and had a responsibility that came with that power to ensure that we showed our strength in pursuing our goals and moving he LGBT agenda forward.
In 2004, “Our Time is Now” JCLGO reached a milestone in Hudson County by raising the rainbow flag, a symbol of LGBT Pride, for the first time ever at the Hudson County Courthouse and at City Hall, Jersey City and acquiring Domestic partnership in the state.
2005 “One American Dream” Announcing we are all Americans willing to flex our rights as Citizens and focus on our similarities with every other citizen rather than our differences. We were also proud to extend our Pride events to a full Pride Week that still continues today.
2006 “Somewhere Over the Hudson” Was a theme stressing the importance of our geographic location and our close proximity to NYC- the cradle of the LGBT civil rights movement. We alluded that although we are not New York City- we have rich LGBT heritage of our own- First State to legalize Gay and Lesbian adoption, pass domestic partnership- our successful struggle to get Civil Unions, etc.
2007, “Live + Let Love - Same sex Marriage was the focal point during the Festival - celebrating that year's historic milestone of passing the Civil Unions Act in the state- and looking towards a bright future of marriage equality rights for all.
2008- Keeping the Vision Alive! - Reminds people that although we have taken huge leaps in acquiring our rights as citizens and our fight against HIV/Aids- that should be celebrated, we cannot become apathetic and have to realize that our work is not yet complete and there still is a long road ahead of us. We should embrace it and persevere to reach our goals.
2009 “CHANGE = POSSIBILITY” -This year’s pride theme, Change = Possibility attempts to embrace the present hope we all share in the change in status quo and outlook for this country that has recently occurred. In addition we look to our past and commemorate those that have come before us and have paved the way for the work we do in this- the 40th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots. This year’s theme alludes to ACT UP’s “Silence = Death” slogan from the eighties referring to the AIDS epidemic, HRC’s equal sign logo referring to human rights as well as Obama’s campaign slogan- “Change we can believe in”. By merging these concepts and giving them a new context we’ve transformed them into a positive message of hope filled with the endless possibilities that change can bring to our community and inspiring us to continue doing the important work we all do
Today, JCLGO has continued to be as influential and proactive as it was when it was first founded in 2001. Profound events such as Jersey City Pride, Jersey City Mayoral Forum, LGBT Health Fair, and Getting To Know You are testaments on how JCLGO is truly the voice of the Jersey City LGBT community.
JCLGO is an all volunteer organization, in the process of applying for
the not for profit status, 501C-3
