June is Pride Month, but for many in the LGBT+ community, celebrating Pride is nothing new and it happens year-round, encompassing much more than rainbows.
“The roots of the gay rights movement go back to the early 1900s, when a handful of individuals in North America and Europe created gay and lesbian organizations, such as the Society for Human Rights,” history.com’s ‘Origin of Pride Month’ says. “Following World War II, a small number of groups like the Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis published gay- and lesbian-positive newsletters and grew more vocal in demanding recognition for … gays and lesbians.
“Despite some progress in the postwar era, basic civil rights were largely denied to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people — until one night in June 1969, when the gay rights movement took a furious step forward with a series of violent riots in New York City,” the site continues. “On June 28, 1969 … the (New York Police Department) raided the Stonewall Inn, a bar in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. When the police aggressively dragged patrons and employees out of the bar, several people fought back against the NYPD and a growing crowd of angry locals gathered. The confrontations … sparked six days of protests and violent clashes with the NYPD outside the Stonewall Inn. By the time the Stonewall Riots ended on July 2, 1969, the gay rights movement went from being a fringe issue largely ignored by politicians and the media to front-page news worldwide.”
It didn’t take long for organizers to conceptualize a way to commemorate the riots while celebrating gay rights.
The Library of Congress article “The History of Pride” says, “On June 28, 1970, on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, the first Pride marches were held in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Thousands of LGBT+ people gathered to commemorate Stonewall and demonstrate for equal rights. The events of Stonewall and the liberation movement that followed were a direct result of prior decades of LGBT+ activism and organizing. In particular, Pride traditions were adapted from the ‘Reminder Day Pickets’ held annually (1965 — 1969) on July 4 at Independence Hall in Philadelphia.”
Activist Craig Schoonmaker is credited with coining the phrase “pride,” according to the history.com piece.
“‘There’s very little chance for people in the world to have power,’” he says in the article. “‘People did not have power then; even now, we only have some. But anyone can have pride in themselves, and that would make them happier as people and produce the movement likely to produce change.”
Locally, sources said, pride has been steadily expanding, with LGBT+ alliances in Otsego, Chenango and Delaware counties.
Elayne Mosher Campoli, president and founding member of Otsego Pride Alliance, said Otsego County’s inaugural Pride Fest was held in 2017, with formation of the group following shortly after.
Mosher Campoli said the results of the 2016 presidential election proved catalytic.
“I think there were a lot of us that always wanted to see Pride stuff happening, and had not ever gotten together, for whatever reason,” she said. “We were comfortable, then the election in 2016 made a lot of us uncomfortable and got us moving in directions that were new. Following the Women’s March, I had organized some debriefing … and one of the things was a process to see where folks thought we should focus our energies. What rose to the top was Pride and doing something for Pride.
“We got a plan and a group and everybody said we should do a Pride event and make it the first annual, so it was something we were always continuing, and we have,” Mosher Campoli continued. “We’re really excited to get back to the full, in-person event and, this year, we’re really excited to see how it turns out being on Main Street (instead of in Neahwa Park). We’re excited about all the possibilities that brings us to collaborate with folks downtown and businesses.”
“When Donald Trump was elected, there had been, in Oneonta, a Facebook LGBT networking group … and someone had posted on there, ‘Shouldn’t we do something locally to bring openness to the community here in upstate New York and Oneonta?’,” OPA volunteer committee member and organizer Kerri Chase echoed. “Every year, it gets bigger and bigger, I think, because of the community, and because of the efforts of the committee of volunteers. The community needs to have pride like this.”
OPA Pride Fest begins at 1 p.m., June 3. The move to Main Street, Chase said, will help increase accessibility.
Pride Fest planning, Chase said, is a year-round effort.
“After Pride Fest is over, in July or August, we have a wrap-up meeting and start planning for the next year’s, based on what happened,” she said. “Then, we meet twice a month throughout the year and, closer to Pride Fest, starting in March, we meet once a week.
“And we have a lot of other events, as well,” Chase continued, noting a free family dance in February and Pride Fest fundraising events such as bingo, “Skate with Pride” and community meetings featuring “some kind of speaker to help the queer community at large.”
Mosher Campoli, too, said OPA’s reach is growing.
“It’s not just about us celebrating and having fun — that’s an important part — but also having safe spaces for vulnerable populations,” she said. “Particularly youth and trans folks and folks that are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color). So, we’re really working hard as an organization to make safe spaces and identify and deal with our own biases and create a culture that’s not just welcoming, but safe.
“During the past year, we’ve had things come to our attention — either through students or a family that had a difficult time dealing with an incident … where their trans child was not fully respected, and we helped work through that,” Mosher Campoli continued. “That is something new we’ve done to protect young people out there: sit down, discuss why … and how to approach things to make people feel more welcome and safe. The (Oneonta) Teen Center is a big part of what we do. There will be a Pride Night at the (June 8 Oneonta Outlaws) baseball game, a writer’s event in the middle of the month, another skating night and a community meeting for folks interested in finding out more.”
Otsegopridealliance.org, Mosher Campoli and Chase said, includes a community calendar highlighting LGBT+-friendly events in the region, alongside OPA-sponsored events.
Such growth, sources said, is widespread.
“When I was young, if we wanted to go to a Pride Fest, we would have to go to New York City or some other big city,” Chase said. “Then, to have it be in Oneonta was so awesome. Now, if you look, it’s every county surrounding us – it’s in Cooperstown, Herkimer, Delaware, Chenango – so it’s spreading, and every single year, more and more Pride alliances are formed and businesses and people are getting involved and more people feel safe coming out and being public.”
“Things have exploded in such a wonderful way,” Mosher Campoli said. “I keep telling people, it’s blossomed to the point that I’m hearing about things I didn’t even know about (being planned for Pride Fest), because we have so many people involved and such a network and it’s really great.
“There’s rainbow commercialism, where people are making money off things they slap rainbows on, but we’re hoping to highlight local talents and businesses that are investing in this community in their own way,” she continued. “We all love to see rainbows around and that does help people to feel more welcome, so there’s a place for that, too, but it’s not the focus. We want to make sure individuals living in and contributing to this community are really highlighted through our events.”
While sources said increasing activity and visibility are worthy byproducts of progress, such action remains politically and socially imperative.
“The whole queer community is under attack by the government,” Chase said. “There are over 650 anti-LGBT bills proposed at this time and at least 550 bills are anti-trans bills; especially trans children are under attack. It’s like a war on the queer community at this time, so the visibility and support have to be bigger than ever, which is why Pride Fest this year is even more important than previous years. Here, locally, we have to let people know that we can’t stand for that.
“Our representative Marc Molinaro voted to ban trans women in sports,” she continued. “That’s here, in our district, so New York is generally a safe state and we’re hoping to have New York be a sanctuary state, but right in our district, we have somebody voting against trans people. I think the more that the government is pushing back against the queer community, the harder the queer community will push back against the government.”
“We are going to have an action table at Pride Fest, because we would like to see the governor have New York State be a sanctuary state for trans folks,” Mosher Campoli said. “One of the things worrying us most right now is how many states are enacting laws that are directly harming trans individuals by preventing access to care, denying their identity and existence and it’s really scary, because that places a lot of folks in a very vulnerable position in their own homes. We’re keeping on top of awareness of what’s going on and listening for what we can do to be a help.”
For more information on Pride events or LGBT+ happenings in the area, visit otsegopridealliance.org, follow @delawarecountypride or @oneontateencenter on Instagram or find “Chenango Pride” and “Otsego Pride Alliance” on Facebook.