St. Charles to raise first Pride flag in its history as part of ceremony Wednesday morning

History will be made Wednesday morning as St. Charles city officials – together with representatives from Out In Fox Valley Inc. along with St. Charles Pride – raise the first Pride flag in the city’s history.

“We just feel so thankful that they went forward with something like this,” said Michael Stroud. Stroud is founder and president of Out in Fox Valley, a nonprofit organization working to increase LGBTQ+ acceptance in local communities. “We’re going to do a mini ceremony to help celebrate it.”

The group also works to strengthen the LGBTQ+ and ally community by bringing groups and individuals with common interests together. St. Charles Pride and Batavia Pride are subgroups of Out in Fox Valley.

June is Pride Month. Pride Month is celebrated each year during the month of June to honor the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan.

St. Charles Mayor Lora Vitek will take part in the flag raising at 8:30 a.m. at the St. Charles Municipal Building, 2 E. Main St. A ceremony will follow featuring a variety of speakers, including Stroud.

“We’re going to be honoring a lost LGBT young adult named Michael Fairbanks, who passed away in 2013,” Stroud said. “He was a big advocate for people back then. He had a very positive spirit. His mother, Denise, is going to speak.”

Fairbanks was 19 when he suddenly passed away in February 2013. He was a 2012 graduate of St. Charles East High School.

Stroud lauded the advocacy work of Fairbanks and others.

“There’s many people before us that helped pave at least the conversation with the community,” he said.

Other speakers include Kane County Board candidate Mike Linder and Arad Boxenbaum, who is running for the Illinois House of Representatives in the 83rd District.

Stroud worked with Vitek and the City Council last year to pass the city’s first Pride proclamation. The proclamation states in part that “St. Charles celebrates the history and diversity of our city’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and promotes an atmosphere in which all residents can live free from discrimination.”

He is also working on organizing a Fox Valley Pride Parade, to be held in late summer or early fall. He hopes Wednesday’s flag raising event will help provide more visibility for the LGBTQ+ community.

“It’s a big deal to a lot of people, including me personally, as a LGBT man,” Stroud said. “Also, there has been a lot of children within our school systems here that are bullied for their identity. And this will be a reminder to them that it does get better and they’re going to get through it and that there are people on many levels around them that support them. I think that reminder is super important.”