Pride and progress: Increasing LGBTQ visibility in the Adirondacks

Pride event provides space for celebration, belonging for rural northern New Yorkers

By David Escobar

On a recent October afternoon in downtown Plattsburgh, an audience of rainbow-clad children and adults sprawled across the lawn at Trinity Park. As the beat of Britney Spears’ “Oops!…I Did It Again” blared, Auntie Heroine, an Illinois-based drag queen, emerged from a tent dressed in a towering green wig and green zebra print dress.

After twirling, lip-syncing and collecting dollar bills from the audience, the performer led a chant.

“When I say hip-hip, you say, you’re gay!”

Auntie Heroine was one of several queens who traveled to the Adirondacks to drum up the crowd’s energy at the ninth annual Adirondack North Country Pride celebration.

The event drew hundreds of attendees from around the Adirondacks, including a drag queen who performs under the name Mhisty Knights. Mhisty Knights lives just a few miles from Plattsburgh in Peru and has witnessed the slow but steady rise of LGBTQ pride.

“The amount of pride that we have in the Adirondacks — it brings tears to my eyes,” said Mhisty Knights.

Mhisty Knights said Adirondack North Country Pride is one of the few public LGBTQ events in this rural part of New York, where the queer community is small yet growing in visibility.

Pride in a conservative region

For the LGBTQ community in the Adirondacks, Pride events are more than just a colorful celebration — they are essential spaces for queer people to feel recognized and establish peer-to-peer connections.

Unlike the grand, corporate-sponsored parades in cities like New York or Montreal, Plattsburgh’s Pride celebration was an intimate affair — no showers of ticker tape and towering floats. Instead, local community leaders gathered under tents to pass out rainbow merchandise and share educational pamphlets.

Several booths, including one from Attorney General Leticia James’ office, offered information about Proposal 1, the New York Equal Rights Amendment, which will be on the Nov. 5 ballot. Paula Collins, a Democrat running against Rep. Elise Stefanik in New York’s 21st Congressional District, also stopped by to introduce herself at the gathering.

Kelly Metzgar, director of the Adirondack North Country Gender Alliance and one of the event’s main organizers, said the event focused on local queer people, some of whom do not always feel safe or represented in rural communities.

“Small towns are different than big cities,” said Metzgar.

Metzgar, a trans woman in her 60s, has lived in the Adirondacks for decades, a region she said can be uniquely difficult for queer people. Since founding Adirondack North Country Pride nine years ago, Metzgar has seen the event grow slowly but steadily.

However, the backdrop of political conservatism around the country has made LGBTQ rights and Pride celebrations more contentious in recent years. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, state and local legislatures have introduced over 500 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2024.

Metzgar said Pride celebrations, particularly in rural areas, are sometimes met with quiet disapproval or outright resistance from locals who see them as out of place in their small, traditional communities.

In Saranac Lake, trespassers have repeatedly vandalized Pride flags outside Metzgar’s home. Across New York, the number of reported hate crimes against gay and trans people has more than doubled in the past five years, according to the state comptroller’s office.

Resistance and resilience

Plattsburgh resident Allie Racette, 30, said it can be intimidating to visibly identify as queer in rural places like the Adirondacks, even at an event like Pride.

“It can be a little nerve-wracking sometimes, especially in the current political climate,” Racette said.

Racette and others at the event said safety is a concern for many. She said Pride events can help alleviate feelings of insecurity by allowing geographically-fragmented queer people to network and form friendships.

But even in the face of adversity, Troy resident Tonie Cross, 27, said the Adirondacks’ LGBTQ community is growing bolder. Cross, who grew up in nearby Keeseville, said she has observed queer people become increasingly visible across the park.

“We have openly queer people in our high schools now,” she said. “It’s been a really nice shift to be able to kind of leave and find myself, but also come back and find that the community has found itself as well.”

Metzgar said Pride celebrations in the Adirondacks might not resemble the grandiose parades elsewhere, but they can offer something even more important: a sense of belonging. As she watched children frolic in rainbow capes and families tie-dye colorful shirts, Metzgar said there was an undeniable feeling of magic at this year’s event.

“There’s people who wait all year for these events,” Metzgar said. “Just look at the joy and happiness.”

For many, Pride events in the Adirondacks are a powerful reminder that LGBTQ people are not only present but thriving in small towns. Zeanna Reyome, 59, who lives outside Malone, said Pride events provide them with a rare opportunity to feel acknowledged and understood.

“I come here, and nobody’s going to judge me because I have rainbows and pride,” Reyome said, tugging at their rainbow cape. “They’re going to accept me because this is who I say I am.”

Reyome said LGBTQ Adirondackers still have a long way to full acceptance in the region, but Pride celebrations will be crucial stepping stones. As Metzgar and other organizers continue highlighting the presence of their community, they said the turnout at Adirondack North Country Pride demonstrates that LGBTQ people exist in the region, and they are not going anywhere.

David Escobar is a Report For America Corps Member. He reports on diversity issues in the Adirondacks through a partnership between North Country Public Radio and Adirondack Explorer.