Albany officials raised the BIPOC flag outside City Hall Friday, marking the official start of Pride Month. This year’s celebration has added significance.
Elected officials, activists and community organizers came together Friday for the event that traditionally marks the official start of Pride Month celebrations for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities across Albany, the Capital Region, and the entire state.
Leaders said this year's celebration carries a sense of urgency.
"This is an incredibly hard time for people in the LGBTQI+ BIPOC community,” said Democratic Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan.
As some U.S. municipalities take steps to ban Pride celebrations, Sheehan emphasized Albany's commitment to raising Pride flags and lifting up the community.
“We know and we see what is happening across this country, and it is unconscionable. It is unconscionable the attacks, it is unconscionable the hatred, the bigotry, particularly with respect to our trans brothers and sisters, we need to ensure that we stand in solidarity,” Sheehan said.
In 2021 Sheehan proclaimed the annual event would forever be known as the “Richard Conti Pride Flag Raising Day,” honoring the 6th ward Common Council member who represented the ward from 1997 to 2021, when he decided not to run for another term. Conti, who came out as gay in 1987, rejoined the panel January 1st to finish Gabriella Romero's term after she was elected to the New York State Assembly. Conti urges members of marginalized communities to get involved in all levels of government – from city councils to Congress. Conti said “We need our voices to be seated at that table, every commission, every board you can think of.”
Romero, a resident of Center Square sponsoring a bill that would protect gender-affirming care in the event of federal cuts, talked of her own support of groups such as ‘In Our Own Voices,’ which represents the LGBTQI+ BIPOC communities. She asked everyone to take a stand.
"I'm really proud as the newest New York State Assembly member, to give over $150,000 of my own dollars this year to ‘In Our Own Voices’ and to the ‘Pride Center,’ at a time right now when we are under literal attack by the Federal Administration. One of the first things that I said was our LGBTQI+ community needs support and literally needs our dollars. We need to put our money where our mouth is,” said Romero.
Capital Pride Center Executive Director Nathaniel Gray urges activists to stay visible and vocal. “We are the canaries in the coal mine, and I'm singing very loudly right now... queer history has been erased over and over again, and if we don't wake up to the history that's already happened, it will happen again,” Gray said.
“In Our Own Voices” Chief Executive Director Tandra LaGrone: “BIPOC Pride is about reclaiming space. It's about joy. It's about resistance, about being unapologetically seen and heard. So as we raise this flag today, let it be a reminder. We are not alone. We are not broken, and we will not be erased. So I would like you all to say along with me, 'say it loud, say it proud, Happy Pride and thank you!”
There's more info about June Pride Events in the Capital Region at www.518capitalpride.com
