The Mayflower Compact (originally “Agreement Between the Settlers of New Plymouth”), dated Nov. 11, 1620, states in part as follows:

We, whose names are underwritten … covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience.

Provincetown, Massachusetts’ status as a safe harbor for the LGBTQ community continues one of the most established civil rights legacies in our country’s jurisprudence. American liberty originated in that Cape Cod community which has long stood as a bastion of inclusion and acceptance that even predates the formation of the United States. The legacy of equality that evolved from Provincetown inspired several key tenets of the federal Constitution as well as some of the Garden State’s founding documents and principles.

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