Niagara Pride & Niagara Falls State Park
Honor Local LGBTQ+ History With A Marker

Niagara Falls, NY – On Friday, October 25, 2024, Niagara Pride, Inc. and the Niagara Falls State Park unveiled to the public a new interpretive marker commemorating a significant event in LGBTQ+ history that occurred on Luna Island inside the State Park on July 24, 2011.
 
On that day, Kitty and Cheryle Lambert-Rudd became the first LGBTQ+ couple to marry in New York State.  A month prior, then Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Marriage Equality Act in June 2011, making New York the 6th State in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage. The law took effect on July 24, 2011 and at the stroke of midnight, that day, Kitty and Cheryle Lambert-Rudd married, becoming the first legally married LGBTQ+ couple in the State of New York.  Four years later, in June 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.
 
“People often don’t realize that significant historical events may have occurred in the spot where they are standing.  And for many of us in the LGBTQ+ community, we often forget that LGBTQ+ history is not something that occurred in New York City, but rather, right here locally in WNY.  That’s why our organization felt it was important to work with the NYS Parks Department to create a momentum that honors the momentous achievements of Kitty and Cheryle Lambert-Rudd and the importance of not taking for granted rights, like the freedom to marry the person you love,” said Ronald Piaseczny, President of Niagara Pride, Inc.
 
Kitty Lambert and Cheryle Rudd have long been recognized as locally in WNY as LGBTQ+ civil rights advocates and leaders, championing for the right of marriage equality.  In 2004, the Lambert-Rudds, founded OUTSpoken for Equality, a Buffalo-based LGBTQ+ rights group, which focused on marriage equality for NY State citizens.  Their tireless efforts including protesting, lobbying, and educating were successful, resulting in NY passing a marriage equality bill years before the US Supreme made marriage equality the law of the land.  This historical marker is a tribute to their pioneering efforts to improve the lives of everyday LGBTQ+ people.