Our Fight is Love: Why Showing up for Pride is Important

Richard Heyl de Ortiz, Executive Director — Pride Guide 2026

It could be easy to think that Pride = June, and in some ways it does.  But Pride is also more than a month. It is a movement anchored in the activism of Stonewall, the AIDS crisis and the current attack on our trans friends, neighbors and family members.  

It is also about celebration – about boldly and joyously being who we are in all our fabulousness.  It is about community, about coming together to affirm ourselves and make our voices heard.

In year such as this, when our theme of “Our Fight is Love” could not be more true or relevant, each and every one of us who can be part of Pride needs to be here, if for no other reason to than to say to those who seeks to erase us, “We are here, we have always been here, and we will continue to be here.”

Showing is important for another reason.  For so many of us throughout history, we had to leave our community to find community – leaving home for the havens that big cities such as New York and San Francisco offer.  Folks need to know, and we need to remind ourselves, that we exist, and that we are a strong, organized force even in smaller communities such as ours.  The Hudson Valley and Catskills are our home, and none of us, whether born here or transplants from somewhere else, should be forced to leave to live openly and with dignity.

All of this could not be more important than it is in this moment. Our hard-won rights are on the line.  

For all these reasons, it is important that we are here.  That you are here.  Thank you for bringing and living Pride in June and throughout the year.