Tiny Haddon Township in southern New Jersey, pop. 15,407 and just over the Delaware River from Philadelphia, is a small town just like any other, with a police and fire department, a part-time mayor, a municipal court, and a public works department, including a local sewer authority run by the county and shepherded through the occasional PR crisis by Ell Bivona, who is trans feminine and nonbinary (they/them, she/her) and is the departments public engagement officer.The small town also has a big, beautiful Pride parade every year, which for 2025 happened just a few weeks ago at the beginning of June. Its an event Bivona, who specializes in PR opportunities, has been angling to get her department involved in for a while. Related This couple has marched for LGBTQ+ rights for over 40 years. Theyve got no plans to stop fighting. The married couple says they have the younger generations backs in their own march for equality. Ive been pushing for us to participate in our local Pride parade a few years now, she tells LGBTQ Nation. The parades theme this year was Choose Joy, and it couldnt be more fitting that that was the theme, in such a hard year, that we finally got cleared to do it. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today Bivona took the okay and ran with it. | Ell Bivona, used with permission As the Sewer Authority, we had so much silliness to bring to the parade, she says. Our own theme was, EVERYBODY Poops.'We covered our parade truck in poop emojis and rainbows. We dressed up in crazy costumes, decked out in fishnets and tutus. We had people take selfies in a giant cardboard cutout of a toilet. And we threw toilet paper and rainbow-wrapped Hersheys Kisses out into the crowd.To have children scream, Throw toilet paper at me! or have people chanting, Go Toilet! Go Toilet! as I shook my booty in the most fantastically idiotic way I could it was just absolute unmitigated, unfiltered joy.Yes, thats Bivona dressed as the toilet. Her poop emoji pal is Tim Feeney, a colleague at the Sewer Authority and her partner in crime at work.The departments banner read Everybody Poops! And when you do the Camden County Municipal Utility Authority is here for you.The selfie cutout had subjects pose below a toilet seat, ringed with the words, I do my business with CCMUA. Asked what was more fun, coming up with her poop-themed parade ideas or the parade itself, Bivona said it was no contest: Im not usually the type to just cut loose and dance in front of strangers, but the crowd was so great, and you could just see people crying from laughing at how silly our idea was. My face hurt from smiling, even more than my feet in those heels!Bivona said the day reminded her that once you shed any embarrassment or shyness about being unashamedly yourself, you bring happiness not only into your own life, but that happiness shines onto everyone around you, and makes their lives brighter, too. We made so many people happy that day.Im sure not everyone in our organization is thrilled that we participated in Pride, she adds, but those who did feel like family now.And maybe those who were on the fence will join us next year, she says, after seeing just how much more fun it is to spread joy. This is the kind of happiness that people like me can remember and hold on to when times get tough. I know I will!EVERYBODY Poops, Bivona reminds us.Finally, something we can all agree on.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.