Pride Month is kicking off in the City of Albany.
Non-profit organizations In Our Own Voices and the Pride Center of the Capital Region celebrated the occasion at City Hall Friday.
Pride events are scheduled throughout the Capital Region, including the Capital Pride parade and festival on June 9th.
Each year, the Pride Center publishes a Pride Guide, with details on events through June and beyond.
This year, the organization launched its Pride Expansion Program, with a mission to underwrite and support festivals and events throughout the Capital Region.
To learn more, WAMC's Lucas Willard spoke with Pride Center Executive Director Nathaniel Gray.
A lot of pride events that form are formed because there's already an existing 501c3 organization, a nonprofit. It's a lot of work to build a nonprofit, people don't realize you have to have a board, you have to have all sorts of different things already built in. And it costs money and takes time. So, for a lot of these smaller towns, the expectation of them forming a full nonprofit in order to have one little festival is insurmountable. And so, what we've done is we've partnered with leaders in these communities who want to see a Pride event. And we've said, ‘How can we help take the burden of some of those more benign things off of your plate?’ Like, for example, not benign, but rather frustrating things like how do we get tax exemption? How do we get a link for donations? How do we reconcile our finances after the month is over? Right? Those are all things that I don't need them to think about. They need to think about how to advertise to their community, how to get really fun performers and entertainment there . How to make sure people know that they're loved and supported and that queer people are visible where they are. And so being able to support that this year for Saratoga, for Schenectady, and for Bethlehem, we're really excited to see those Prides not only sustain – Bethlehem is brand new – but grow. And then over time, our goal is to grow the private expansion program such that every county in the capital region will have a substantive Pride festival that we support.
So, you mentioned Bethlehem, which is holding its first Pride festival. How has the celebration grown since you've been Executive Director of the Pride Center of the Capital Region? It must be great to see new festivals pop up right in your own backyard.
So, I literally live in Bethlehem. So, it is quite, honestly, in my backyard, it makes me feel wonderful. I think, you know, first of all, as a small child growing up in rural Ohio, that feels a lot like the parts of upstate New York that are still very scary for queer people. If a festival supporting my community had popped up in my little town, it would have changed the trajectory of not only my life, my mental health, many, many, many things. So, I think the importance is clear. And that's what I'm thrilled about, to see them pop up in so many backyards. In my time here, as Executive Director, we have seen, I can't give a specific number, but I would bet at least ten new Pride festivals across the counties that have popped up. And we've been able to support them either by just having meetings with them and giving coaching and guidance on permits and insurance and things like that, or with this more official program. And in those two and a half years since I've been Executive Director, I've also noticed that these communities are itching for this. They're not interested in just coming to one big event in the park in June. They want their town to celebrate, they want their elected officials to show up. They want their flagpole to have the flag on it. And I think that that's a noble and important thing for our community. I think it's what keeps queer people feeling safe and supported in the towns that were born in every day.
So, I wanted to talk about the Pride Guide, which is more like a book. It's getting long. And, there's a lot of events, there's a lot of sponsors. But there are events that starting today, Friday, the last day of May, moving in through August, I think I saw in there.
Well, and not to correct you, but the Pride Guide, actually, just for posterity’s sake, starts on May 4th, where we had a transition expo at the Blake Annex. On May 5th, we did our Pride 5k and Paw-rade and we also kicked off a senior potluck that's a monthly event. So, we've decided Pride is a season and it starts at the beginning of May. It goes all through June all through July. And we will go in that Pride Guide, there's an event as late as August 24, which is a cruise that will be happening out of Troy with the Captain JP, that prioritizes LGBTQ seniors by making tickets free for anyone 55 and over. They'll be drag queens and lots of fun and entertainment. And it's a reminder that, you know, for those five amazing months of programming and things that we're doing, LGBTQ people need that visibility every single one of those days and the remaining days of the year.
And you've often, at these events, talked about the political importance of voting and turning up to support people in the LGBTQ-plus community. You said it in the Pride Guy this year, “vote like it's 2024.” Which I thought was an interesting way to take it, could you explain what you mean by “Vote like it's 2024?”
Thank you for catching that. It was something I was toying with putting in there. And here's what I'll say about that. I was born in 1984. I'm 40 this year. I'm also the child of two Marines and my brothers in active duty Marine and I don't know what country I'm standing in sometimes when I see the rhetoric that's coming out against my own community, my own existence, as the child of people who fought for my existence as an American. It devastates me. And what I think people need to wake up to is that time only moves in one direction. And that we are in 2024, a year where in the great state of New York, where people are free from discrimination based on their sexual orientation, or gender identity expression, that we have all sorts of other laws and regulations protecting us in all many, great many places. And yet, there are people who are putting their names on the ballot, who would like to see all of it undone. They'd like to go back in time, but time doesn't do that. And so, I think people need to vote like it's 2024. And what that truly, truly means is vote as though it is a year in which you'd like to see queer people feel safe and authentic and affirmed. And that's where your choices should lie.
