About 30 people, including motorcyclists and a stilt walker, marched alongside a pink decommissioned hearse down Pine Hill’s historic Main Street on Saturday, July 11, in a Pride celebration intended to increase LGBTQ+ visibility in rural Catskills communities.
Pride flags and banners hung from the Pine Hill Community Center and buildings along Main Street as booths offered food, jewelry, arts and crafts, and educational resources. A DJ played music over outdoor speakers.
The event was considerably smaller than Woodstock’s Pride celebration last month, which drew thousands, but participants said Pine Hill’s rural setting made the gathering especially meaningful.
“Pride is a place where people can feel safe,” said Mike Anair, who wore a hard-to-miss Pink Panther T-shirt as he stood along the parade route.
Smaller events in less-populated areas are important because “you want to find out who lives in the community that we can feel safe with and rejoice with,” he said.
“Now really is the time for people to get together and see who are your friends or who is accepting,” Anair said.
Finding safe spaces isn’t easy, said Ricky Zia, an artist from Roxbury.
“In the Catskills, there are a lot of people that don’t want people to have Pride,” he said.
Events like Pine Hill Pride can also help break down barriers and challenge misconceptions about LGBTQ+ people in small towns, said Julie Moreno, who traveled from New York City to attend.
“In the smaller communities, Pride could build awareness,” she said. “If you come and it’s a street fair and you see families, you’re like, ‘People aren’t that much different. The values we have are shared.’”
Amy King, a poet and professor at Nassau Community College, said she wished more young people had attended.
“Those around the community, even if they’re supportive or if they don’t care or are indifferent, they need to see that we’re here, we’re queer and to get used to it,” King said.
For Lisa Thomas of Catskill, who drove the hearse, misunderstandings about LGBTQ+ people make rural Pride celebrations especially important.
Thomas said small-town Pride parades can carry greater risks than large celebrations where participants know they will have support from spectators.
“They also create that community that might be lacking in these more rural areas,” said Thomas, who uses the hearse for Thin Edge Films, her local production company.
After the parade, the Pine Hill Community Center hosted a show featuring drag performer Octavia Anyae. The Shandaken Historical Museum screened a documentary about the 1969 Stonewall uprising, which helped propel the modern gay rights movement.
Meantime, a drag performer read children’s books at the Morton Memorial Library in Pine Hill.
The celebration continued with an after-party at The Print House, a Fleischmanns bar and restaurant that marked its third anniversary this month.
Kyle Bredberg is an intern and contributing reporter. You can reach him at reporting@theoverlooknews.com.
