Today we’d like to introduce you to Reubena Spence.
Hi Reubena, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Madeline Gale (Co-Founder and Board Member) and I, Reubena Spence (President and Co-Founder), have always believed that community is about more than simply living in the same town—it’s about feeling seen, welcomed, and knowing that you belong to a safe and supportive community.
That belief was at the heart of why we co-founded Out Montclair. What began as a desire to create greater visibility, connection, and support for Montclair’s LGBTQIA+ community quickly grew into something much larger than we could have imagined.
One of our dreams was to bring a Pride celebration to Montclair. We wanted something that reflected the spirit of this community: diverse, joyful, inclusive, family-friendly, and welcoming to LGBTQIA+ people, our families, friends, neighbors, and allies. That dream became Montclair Pride®.
Over the past five years, Out Montclair has grown from an idea into a year-round nonprofit organization offering programs, events, partnerships, advocacy, and opportunities for people to connect. Montclair Pride® has grown along with it, becoming a major community celebration that has welcomed tens of thousands of people to Montclair.
This work and journey have certainly had their challenges. Building an organization from the ground up takes an enormous amount of work, perseverance, fundraising, volunteer support, and community partnership. Madeline and I have learned a great deal along the way, but one thing has remained constant: our belief in why this work matters.
This year feels especially meaningful. On October 11—National Coming Out Day—we will celebrate our fifth anniversary with “Come Out for Montclair Pride®.” After everything it has taken to get here, this Pride is about more than a festival. It is about resilience, visibility, community, and the freedom to show up as your authentic self.
We want people to come out for Pride in every sense of the phrase—come out to celebrate, come out to support your LGBTQIA+ neighbors, come out with your family and friends, and come out to remind people that there is a place for them in this community.
When Madeline and I look back at where we started and then see thousands of people gathering together at Montclair Pride®, it can still be overwhelming. We know that none of this belongs to just the two of us. It belongs to our fellow co-founders, volunteers, board members, businesses, sponsors, community partners, performers, artists, local leaders, and the many individuals who believed in the vision and helped build it.
For us, that is the most rewarding part of the journey: seeing an idea that started with a desire to bring people together become something that now belongs to and supports an entire community.
On October 11, from 12:00 to 5:00 PM, we’re inviting everyone to Come Out for Montclair Pride® and celebrate that community with us at Lackawanna Station and Lackawanna Plaza, extending along Bloomfield Avenue to the TD Bank parking lot near Grove Street.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It definitely has not always been a smooth road. Building a nonprofit organization from the ground up—especially one that has grown as quickly as Out Montclair—has come with challenges we could never have anticipated when we started.
Like many grassroots nonprofits, one of our biggest challenges has been balancing a very ambitious mission with limited resources. Much of what we have accomplished has depended on volunteers, community partnerships, fundraising, sponsorships, and people willing to give tremendous amounts of their time and talent. As the organization and Montclair Pride® grew, so did the responsibilities, costs, expectations, and complexity of producing programs and events for the community.
Fundraising has also become increasingly challenging. The landscape for corporate sponsorship and support for LGBTQIA+ organizations has changed, while the costs associated with producing a large, safe community festival have continued to rise. We have had to become more creative, resilient, and intentional about how we sustain both Pride and our year-round programming.
This year presented perhaps one of our greatest challenges when Montclair Pride®, originally planned for June, had to be postponed. It was incredibly disappointing for our organization, our team, and the community. But it also forced us to regroup, reassess, make difficult decisions, strengthen areas of the organization, and determine how we could move forward responsibly.
Instead of allowing that setback to define us, we decided to use it as an opportunity to rebuild and come back stronger. That is part of what makes October 11 and “Come Out for Montclair Pride®” so meaningful to us.
Through all of the challenges, we have learned that community organizations are not built by never encountering problems—they are built by how people respond to them. We have learned to listen, adjust, ask for help, acknowledge when something needs to change, and keep moving forward.
There have certainly been difficult moments, but there have also been extraordinary ones. Every time someone tells us that they found community through Out Montclair, attended their first Pride, felt comfortable bringing their family, made a new connection, or simply felt that they belonged, it reminds us why we started and why we continue doing this work.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Out Montclair, Inc?
Out Montclair is a nonprofit organization rooted in the belief that visibility, connection, and community matter. While we are perhaps best known for Montclair Pride®, our work extends throughout the year through programs, events, partnerships, advocacy, wellness initiatives, networking opportunities, and social gatherings designed to bring LGBTQIA+ people and allies together.
What sets Out Montclair apart is that we have always tried to create more than events—we create experiences and spaces where people can feel seen, welcomed, celebrated, and connected to their community. We also believe strongly in collaboration. Our work has grown through relationships with local businesses, community organizations, artists, volunteers, government partners fellow non-profits and residents who share our commitment to making Montclair a place where everyone can belong.
Montclair Pride® has become our signature event and one of the most visible expressions of that mission, bringing thousands of people together in the heart of Montclair.
But Pride is only part of our story. We are equally proud of the community that has developed around Out Montclair and of our ability to create programming that reaches people in different ways and at different stages of their lives.
What we are most proud of is that Out Montclair was built from the community up. We started with an idea and a need, and that has grown into an organization and a recognizable presence that people associate with celebration, inclusion, visibility, and connection.
As we look ahead, including to Come Out for Montclair Pride on October 11, we want people to know that Out Montclair is continuing to grow and evolve. Our goal is not simply to produce Pride once a year. It is to strengthen a community that is visible, connected, supported, and celebrated 365 days a year.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
What we like best about Montclair is its strong sense of community and its willingness to stand up for inclusion. From our Township leadership to the Governor’s office and the State of New Jersey, we are fortunate to live in a place where there has been a clear commitment to protecting the rights, dignity, and safety of LGBTQIA+ people and all communities. That support matters. On a personal level, Madeline and I have seen how residents, businesses, families, allies, and community organizations can come together to make people feel welcomed and celebrated. That spirit is a big part of what allowed Out Montclair and Montclair Pride® to grow.
If there is something we like least, it is really more of a challenge than a criticism: even in a progressive and welcoming community like Montclair, there is always more work to do. Acceptance should never be taken for granted. We want to continue seeing greater representation, understanding, and opportunities for connection across generations, backgrounds, identities, and experiences within the LGBTQIA+ community and beyond. Montclair has accomplished a great deal, but inclusion isn’t a destination—it is something we have to continue building together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://outmontclair.org
- Instagram: outmontclair
- Facebook: @outmontclair
- Twitter: @outmontclair
