State College Pride was about more than a celebration for many in attendance on Saturday. It was a call to action, and a reminder of the battles won and challenges still faced by the LGBTQ community.
Those who spoke to the large crowd in Sidney Friedman Park often referenced the current hostile climate toward LGBTQ individuals, particularly transgender people, amid a series of Trump administration executive orders and legislation across the country aimed at everything from gender affirming care for youth to recognition of gender identity to funding for LGBTQ health research to mentions of LGBTQ people on government websites and elsewhere.
“It’s imperative that Pride must be more than just a festival, than just a party,” said Michel Lee Garrett, a Centre LGBT+ board member. “Pride is a protest. Pride is a protest against the evil and unjust forces that would seek to eradicate us from public life. But what those forces don’t realize is that their goal is literally impossible. Queer people, trans people, people across and beyond the binary have always existed and we always will exist.”
“So pride is celebration, pride is protest, and pride is a promise. It is a promise to those coming after us that we will fight the good fight on their behalf. It is a promise that we will not go quietly into that good night. It is a promise that we will fight and we will dance and we will sing.”
Hosted by Centre LGBTQ+ with support from State College Borough, the Downtown State College Improvement District and Happy Valley Adventure Bureau, State College Pride is now in its fifth year and has grown substantially since it began in 2021.
Saturday’s celebration started off with a morning parade with a wide variety of community groups, businesses and congregations marching and riding through the downtown. It then moved to Friedman Park for a festival that featured drag performances, music, magic, poetry, food and more, as well as remarks by LGBTQ community members and local and state politicians, including Lt. Gov. Austin Davis.
Jacob Kelley, also known as Trixy Valentine, served as this year’s grand marshal. Kelley is an LGBTQ advocate, sexuality educator and drag performer who champions rural queer visibility.
“It’s not revolutionary that we exist,” Kelley said. “We’ve always been here. We’re just tired of being ignored. We want to be seen authentically for who we are. We want to be heard, loud and proud, beautiful and colorful without changing who we have to be.”
Kelley spoke of the predecessors who stood up during the Lavender Scare, the Stonewall riots and the AIDS crisis, and those who paved the way for changes to discriminatory laws and gaining marriage rights.
“iI took other queer folks and our allies to get us here today,” they said. “We cannot forget that we have to be loud and proud for them. People have died for us. People have sacrificed so much for us.”
Jason Landau Goodman, an attorney and chair of the policy advocacy organization the Pennsylvania Youth Congress, said that at the local level, about 30 school boards have passed “anti-trans student policies,” but more than 140 have enacted gender identity protections, including State College Area School District.
He added that Pennsylvania also has 75 local laws for LGBTQ inclusive non-discrimination laws, the most of any state, covering 38% of the commonwealth’s residents.
“All politics is local, and many communities in the heart of Pennsylvania are on the front lines for LGBTQ inclusion,” Goodman said. “And locally, while we’ve had some cruel losses, we have also had more gains, and they are still in place through this storm.”
State College was one of the state’s earliest adopters of LGTBQ non-discrimination policies, and last year the borough council adopted a resolution declaring State College a transgender sanctuary city.
Mayor Ezra Nanes said that resolution was among his proudest moments in office, and he pointed out that last year the borough also once agains received a perfect score from the Human Rights Commission on the Municipal Equality Index.
“The policy and the law of State College earned us that, but it represents more than that,” Nanes said. “It is fundamentally about people. The people of this community uphold and believe in these values. It’s our businesses, it’s our schools, it’s our neighborhoods. We are what we are celebrating here today.”
Nanes, who has a transgender child, also spoke passionately about supporting trans youth and gender-affirming care.
“Every child deserves to grow up knowing that they can be authentically who they are and that they will be supported in that,” Nanes said. “If we have an ounce of energy left in us, let’s fight for those trans kids who just want to be happy. Let them have their healthcare. …Don’t take happiness away from a child.”
Goodman took direct aim at Penn State Health for its recent decision to limit gender-affirming medical care to patients age 19 or older. (Its Children’s Hospital’s Gender Health Clinic offers psychosocial care for children, adolescents and young adults).
Critics of Penn State Health and other systems that have restricted gender-affirming medical care say they are pre-complying with a Trump order that is currently blocked by the courts and succumbing to political whims.
“I have a message to Penn State Health: Young trans people throughout PA are being harmed because of your action,” Goodman said. “Your pre-compliance of an illegal executive order is unacceptable. Public officials, community leaders, trans Pennsylvanians and their allies are saying enough. You must reverse this decision under the current circumstances.”
State Rep. Paul Takac, meanwhile, said that in the current political environment it is as important as ever for allies of the LGBTQ community to speak out.
“Now is our time to make our voices heard,” Takac said. “Now is the time for us to be seen. Now is the time for us to step up and to stand up for what we believe in and the values that we hold dear.
“If we’re going to talk about freedom and justice and liberty for all, we cannot do it in the shadows. Now is our time to step up. Being here today is the start. But I want to challenge everyone here. Today’s a day of beauty and love. And look at this. I want to challenge each of us to make tomorrow even better and every single day after that. Join me. Let’s make a better world for everybody in our community.”
Davis said that “the LGBTQ community is in a tough moment” and pledged that he and Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration would continue working “to make sure that we can’t discriminate against our LGBTQ brothers and sisters here in our commonwealth.”
“While our country has been in tough moments before, we’ve been able to change it by ordinary people coming together and fighting to make sure that America lives up to its values and its creed, that every person, every man, was created with equal opportunity,” Davis said. “And we’re going to keep fighting.”
Pride Flags Vandalized, Suspect Identified
Saturday’s celebration also came after someone damaged several pride flags and banners in the borough a day earlier.
Cafe 210 West owner JR Mangan posted on Facebook security camera footage of a person tearing a Pride banner from the fence in front of the 210 W. College Ave. Bar and appearing to verbally accost an employee on Friday morning.
Rev. Jess Kast separately posted that someone attempted to burn the new Pride flag hanging on the front of Faith United Church of Christ, 300 E. College Ave., and charred part of the building.
The suspect in the incidents has been identified and charges are pending, State College police Capt. Greg Brauser told StateCollege.com on Saturday morning. Brauser said on Friday afternoon that the suspect was believed to have been involved in incidents at a total of three locations in the borough.
