Putnam Pride Festival focuses on transgender visibility: 'Our work is not done'

CARMEL — Pride Month kicked off in the Lower Hudson Valley this weekend with an opening ceremony at Gilead Presbyterian Church, followed by a rainbow-clad car caravan to an annual festival at Putnam County Veterans Memorial Park.

For its fifth year, Putnam Pride focused on transgender visibility and counteracting rising hate, especially hate against trans youth. To start the day, community members gathered at Gilead Presbyterian Church for speeches, where leaders like Senator Pete Harckham (D-40), Pastor Jen Boyd of Trinity Lutheran Church and Brewster High School student Rebecca Loeffel talked about what it meant to celebrate Pride this year.

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Pride Month in Lower Hudson: Festivals, flag raisings and more in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam

“The reason I wanted to be involved in Putnam Pride was because I originally felt like most people forget that pride is a protest. But to me it's not only a protest, it's also a memorial,” Loeffel said during her speech. “With all the harassment LGBTQ students face, it's no surprise that our community has many tragic suicide stories.”

Loeffel went on to tell stories of two trans people who have passed away, Nova Dunn, a 14-year-old boy from New Hampshire, and Righteous Torrence “TK” Hill, who was a community leader in Atlanta.

She concluded her comments by unveiling a memorial: A Pride flag, covered with hand-written names of trans people who passed away from May 2023 to May 2024.

The theme of LGBTQ+ visibility continued to be reflected throughout the afternoon’s speeches.

“Our work is not done,” said Martha Vick, who was the pastor at Drew United Methodist Church in Carmel until two years ago and spoke at the opening ceremony. “It's never finished in this country… We will continue to do the work to help remove bigotry in all of its forms because it's all related.”

Pride continued at Veterans Memorial Park with activities like face painting, arts and crafts for kids and performances by local drag queens, Kitty KaBoodlez, Starr and Putnam Pride co-hosts, Angel Elektra and Shay D’Pines.

If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or self-harm, call or text the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or go to 988lifeline.org.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Putnam County NY kicks off Pride Month in Hudson Valley with festival