The Poughkeepsie Pride Parade

To understand how completely weird it is for Poughkeepsie to be having its first gay pride parade, you’d have to know something about Poughkeepsie.

And trust me. You don’t want to know anything about Poughkeepsie.



I showed up to take pictures.

Despite being one of the letters in the LGBT acronym, I’ve never been a big fan of pride parades as a political statement. I don’t like the St. Patrick’s Parade either. I think all sexual and cultural taxonomies are marketing categories, and I object to marketing categories on moral grounds.

But, hey! As a venue for costumes and ornamentation, pride parades are great.

I’d been there five seconds before I ran into the Hyde Park Democrats! They assumed I was there to march with them and shoved a sign at me:



Okay! This photo convinced me: I will never leave the house without makeup again!

“Poughkeepsie is a weird place to have a pride parade,” I remarked conversationally to the Councilman from Ward 1.

He raised his eyebrows frostily. “Why would you say that?”

Quite a few politicos in attendance, including Mark Molinaro, the guy who drew the short straw when New York State Republicans were deciding which one of them had to run against Andrew Cuomo in the 2018 gubernatorial election. He’s the one on the right, and I must say, if I’d realized how hunky he was, I might have voted for him. I’m shallow that way.



The woman is Hyde Park Supervisor Aileen Rorh, pal to Neighbor Ed. Life in a small town! Everyone knows everyone!

The parade organizers had plotted the parade’s progress to avoid that part of Main Street where half the stores are vacant, the sidewalks are littered with empty crack vials, and there’s a drive-by shooting every two days. I thought that was chickenshit. I mean, if you’re celebrating Poughkeepsie, celebrate Poughkeepsie! Crack vials and all!

There were some great-looking people:











And the Marist College mascot finally came out!