Small Town, Big Pride: Pine Plains and Stanford Celebrate LGBTQ+ Community

Across the United States — in communities both metropolitan and rural — wherever there are people, there will be Pride. On Saturday, June 1, Pine Plains and neighboring communities kicked off Pride Month with a multitude of celebrations, demonstrating that LGBTQ+ visibility and community spirit can thrive, even in rural settings. 

“A lot of people are really wary of celebrating Pride in rural communities,” said Marie-Michele Mugnos, acting president of the nonprofit community organization BeckHook Pride. “I’ve seen it in comments on the internet. But that’s exactly why we need to be having Pride here. It’s not that the queer community is not already here living in all of these communities. It’s just that we haven’t had a space in those communities to celebrate. We’re not bringing the queer community to the area. We’re already here. We’re just providing an opportunity for celebration and support.”

The Pride celebrations featured events that highlighted the character and history of the LGBTQ+ community. One such event was a tea dance at the Stissing Center, attended by 60 people. “It’s nice to have visibility in a rural place,” said Michael Galvi, a marketing professional in the music industry in New York City who spends weekends in Pine Plains. “It’s special because there’s not millions of people. It’s more community-oriented than the commercialized spectacle that is New York City Pride.”

Tea dances hold historical significance for the LGBTQ+ community. Throughout New York state, it was illegal to serve alcohol to a gay person until 1966, and homosexuality was a criminal offense. This led gay men in the area to hold social gatherings, or tea dances, as an alternative for meeting each other. This year’s tea dance at the Stissing Center was the venue’s first.

“Pine Plains is a diverse and beautiful community, and that’s what we’re here to celebrate,” said Brett Bernardini, the center’s executive director. “It’s easy to think about rural America as a stereotype, but we’re not. We’re a very diverse place. Last year, we had three events around Latin Heritage Month. We’re all about diversity. This just happens to be Pride Month.”

The origins of Pride Month are rooted in the hardships faced by early LGBTQ+ activists, notably marked by the Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village on June 28, 1969, where police brutalized gay bar patrons. The first Pride parade was held one year after these riots in New York, a history remembered by Stanford Town Supervisor Wendy Burton.

“I woke up so full of happiness this morning, because we would be celebrating Pride with a remarkable group of people,” said Burton at Thomases Equestrian in Clinton Corners during Stanford Pride’s third-annual celebration. “I remember my friend Steve Doesrcki, who was my first mentor in the publishing industry, who proudly wore his leathers in the Castro District and died in 1982 of what he then called the ‘gay cancer.’ And the men and women of Stonewall who fought so hard so that we can in turn gather here today to celebrate Pride in all of its glorious manifestations.”

Burton also highlighted the memory of Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who, in 1998, was brutally beaten, tortured and left to die in an attack motivated by his sexuality. “I also remember Matthew Shepard, always, and the cruelty and ignorance that still exist all around us and that we must sadly forever be mindful of and stand up against,” she said.

Ted Secor, a member of Stanford’s town board, shared personal reflections on celebrating Pride in his rural hometown. “It’s really nice. I never thought there would be an event like this here. I grew up going to the Pine Plains School District, and I came out as bisexual. That was kind of unheard of. I was ostracized,” he said. “It’s great to see so many people here. Growing up, I never knew people would come to something like this.”

Donnie Roberts, co-founder of Stanford Pride and head of communications at the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in New York City, emphasized the event’s community-building spirit. “The idea is to create a community,” he said. “Last year we had 250 people come, and it looks like we’re getting close to that for this year. There’s a lot of allies that come from our town, I think partially because we throw a great party. A lot of this is about visibility and hoping to make sure that everyone is seen in these towns that we live in.”

Matthew McMorrow, a representative of Gov. Kathy Hochul, presented the official New York state LGBTQ+ Pride Month proclamation to Roberts. The proclamation declared that “New York state will always stand with our LGBTQ+ communities through our advocacy for a fair and equitable society, free from institutional injustice, prejudice, and bias.”

Also present was Dutchess County legislator Chris Drago, who reflected on the significance of the event. “Having grown up in this community, this isn’t something that we had when I was a kid, so the fact that we can provide this for the community and for kids growing up to just celebrate is really special. It says a lot about what a great place this is.”