[SalesForce] Convert String Date to Date in Apex

I am using an SOQL in a webservice that is querying the Contact object based on the BirthDate field. The webservice request has the date in the format of 'yyyy-MM-dd',i.e.,1962-01-29 as an example.

I am not able to use this value to query the Contact Object. I tried converting this String Date into Date object. However, it always has 00:00:00 at the end. I tried the below options.

String strDate = '1962-01-29';
Date birthDate = Date.valueOf(strDate) ==> This results in 1962-01-29 00:00:00

String strDate = '1962-01-29';
Date dob = Date.valueOf(strDate)
Datetime dt = Datetime.newInstance(dob.Year(),dob.Month(),dob.day());
Date birthDate = dt.date() ==> This also results in 1962-01-29 00:00:00

How do I construct a Date object (without time) from the string date '1962-01-29'?

I did search for solutions in various forums and most of them are suggesting the above two solutions only, which does not work. I am not sure whether this behavior was changed in some Salesforce's releases.

Below is the full query that I am using.

                String query = 'SELECT id,' +
                                        'LastName,' +
                                        'FirstName,' +
                                        'BirthDate,' +
                                        'MiddleName__c,' +
                                        'MailingAddress,' +
                                        'OtherAddress,' +
                                        'EmploymentStatus__c,' +
                                        'Suffix__c,'+
                                        'Investment_Experience__c ' +
                                'FROM Contact WHERE';
                // Fetching the details of contact based on LastName,FirstName,BirthDate
                if(string.isNotEmpty(lastName)){ //Checking for last name value
                  if(lastName.contains('*') || lastName.contains('%')){
                    lastName = (lastName).replace('*','%');
                    query += ' LastName LIKE \''+lastName+'\' AND';
                  }
                  else{
                    query += ' LastName = \''+lastName+'\' AND'; 
                  }
                }
                if(string.isNotEmpty(firstName)){
                 if(firstName.contains('*') || firstName.contains('%')){
                    firstName = (firstName).replace('*','%');
                    query += ' FirstName LIKE \''+firstName+'\' AND';
                  }
                  else{
                    query += ' FirstName = \''+firstName+'\' AND';   
                    }
                }
                if(string.isNotEmpty(dateOfBirth)){
                    //Datetime dt = Date.valueOf(dateOfBirth);
                    //Datetime dob = Date.newInstance(dt.year(), dt.month(), dt.day());
                    query += ' BirthDate = ' + Date.valueOf(dateOfBirth) + ' AND';
                }
                query += ' Account.OrgNumber__c IN (\''+(string.join(lstOrganizationNumbers,'\',\''))+'\') ';
                query += ' ORDER BY lastName,firstName,BirthDate';
                query += ' LIMIT 50';
                system.debug('Query:: '+query);