The Second Year
I pulled into Easton Mountain on a Monday afternoon not entirely sure what to expect. I knew the campus. I knew the schedule. I had been here for this same event last year, but knowing a place and belonging to it are different things, and last year it had taken me a couple days to feel the difference.
This year it took about three minutes.
I dropped my bag in my room. I was sharing a room with John, who I met last year at Easton. We had kept a real connection with through the year visiting from NY to NVC a couple times and him coming to NY once. Once we got settled we went out to the deck to see if anyone we knew had arrived yet. Kevin was already there. I met Kevin last year as well and had some good chats, spent some time together, dressed in drag one night with John and the three of us attended the authors night in costume. After the week ended we said our goodbyes and went back to our separate lives. I hadn’t kept in touch with Kevin over the year. Not for any reason, just that life gets busy. This year, when he saw me he opened his arms and pulled me in like I’d never left. We picked up right where we left off last year, as early friends.
Within an hour of arriving I wasn’t a returning guest finding my footing. I was already home.
That’s the thing about Easton that I didn’t fully understand until I came back a second time. The community doesn’t reset. It holds. Something gets built between people in a week on this mountain that doesn’t dissolve when everyone goes back to their regular lives. It just waits. And when you return it’s waiting for you here exactly where you left off, sometimes deeper than where it left off.
Thomas is another good example of that. I knew him from last year, remembered sitting at authors night listening to him read his beautifulpoetry, thinking this man has something worth knowing. We were friendly but we didn;t get the chance to really build a connection. This year something shifted. We found time to really talk. He shared things he was carrying. I shared things I was carrying. Two men who barely knew each other the last time we saw each other, now becoming, in the span of a quiet conversation, genuine confidants. That doesn’t happen in ordinary life. Not that fast. Not that honestly.
By the end of the week I had deepened acquaintances from last year into friendships, and made new ones I didn’t see coming. I sat in workshops that challenged me, laughed with people I now call friends. I danced on Saturday night after the closing circle with John and DJ Sean playing gay anthems. I walked the labyrinth. I shared meals with guys who asked real questions and waited for real answers.
And somewhere in the middle of all of it I noticed something I want to try to name accurately because I think it is important. I felt like I mattered.
I felt like I mattered
Not in a general, affirmational way. I mean that I felt it specifically. That the people around me wanted me here. That my joy added something to the room. That my anxieties were safe to say out loud. That my heartache didn’t make anyone uncomfortable. That all ogf me, the caring, the worrying, the laughing, the struggling, was not just tolerated but genuinely welcomed. These men became my extended family for a week, and like the best families they didn’t ask me to edit myself before walking in the door.
As gay men, we spend a lot of our lives editing. We learn early which parts of ourselves are acceptable in which rooms. We get good at it. So good that sometimes we forget we’re doing it.
Easton Mountain is one of the few places I’ve ever been where I stopped. I didn’t have to edit a thing about myself and no one was expecting me to because they were also not editing anything about themselves. We all know how speacial and fleeting that feeling is. I have found a place where I can reach that feeling whenever I am there.
I’ll be back next year for a third year in a row. And I already know that I’ll belong and I’ll be welcomed and that I’ll feel it on day one.
Easton Mountain Sets Sail
Every retreat that happens on this mountain, every meal that lands on the table, every moment that feels effortless to the men who come here, exists because of a group of volunteers who show up before the guests arrive and stay after they leave. They carry bags, set up spaces, hold logistics, and make sure that the container is intact so that the magic inside it can happen. Most of them have been doing this for years. Most of them would tell you they get more than they give.
Every summer, Easton says thank you the best way it knows how. It puts everybody on a boat.
“every moment that feels effortless to the men who come here, exists because of a group of volunteers”
Lake George sits about an hour north of campus, a 32-mile stretch of water tucked between the Hudson and St. Lawrence River Valleys. They call it the Queen of the Lakes, and once you’ve seen it on a summer evening you understand why. For most of the past 15 summers, Easton staff and volunteers have sailed those waters together on the Lac du Saint Sacrement, a steamship run by the Lake George Steamboat Company. The trip is funded by tips left by retreat guests for the volunteer team, which means the men who come to Easton Mountain are the ones making this night possible. That feels right.
This year the evening had an extra reason to celebrate. It was also the birthday of our program director Freddy Freeman, known to many of you as Goldenheart, the man whose vision, warmth, and relentless care shapes every single retreat we run. The crew, the buffet, the drinks, and a full evening of music from the genuinely impressive Lacey Allen and Chris Dollard took care of the rest. By the end of the night the dance floor was alive, the conga line was moving, and Arturo was leading it.
To our volunteers: this boat ride is for you. But honestly, nothing we do is possible without you. Thank you for being the backbone of this place and for giving so much of yourselves to a community that loves you back.
Rural Pride
I was pleasantly pleased to notice the proliferation of LGBTQIA+ Pride events in small towns this year, both here in upstate NY and around the country!
In 2005, the East Central Minnesota Men’s Circle marked their fifth anniversary by hosting the nation’s first recorded Pride event not held in a metropolitan area in Pine City, MN.
Since then, more and more, people are coming together at rural Pride events to celebrate the resilience, inclusivity, honesty and joy that the LGBTQIA+ community emulates – as members of the family or as friends, family and neighbors, who show support by being there.
Don Quaintance and a small group of friends founded the East Central Minnesota Men’s Circle as a social and support group for gay, bisexual and questioning individuals who identify as men in East Central Minnesota. It was born in the year 2000, same as Easton Mountain.
“Small-town pride events are the ones that create the change. It’s easy to blend in with 500,000 of your friends at the Twin Cities pride festival and another to be one of 500 in Pine City. That takes a good deal of courage.”
— Don Quaintance
Lower Adirondack Pride is truly a force, if I do say so myself. Founded in 2023, the organization is a unifying voice for LGBTQIA+ representation in this region of upstate New York. Per their website: Lower Adirondack Pride serves Warren, Washington (ours), and Northern Saratoga Counties by “producing events, championing advocacy, building community, and offering essential programs.”
It seemed like they were hosting or supporting Pride events every other day the entire month of June! Through their organizing and partnership, Pride events were held across the counties all month. Queer individuals, businesses, and organizers had the opportunity to connect, and smaller Pride groups in the area had a larger platform through which to get the word out.
Several of us from Easton Mountain attend these events last month:
- Lower Adirondack Pride Festival (Glens Falls)
- Battenkill Valley Pride Festival (Cambridge)
- LAP’s Pride Cruise (Lake George)
Lower Adirondack Pride Festival featured talented musical acts, who shined despite the torrential downpour, and Glens Falls City Park was filled with booths: advocacy groups, spiritual groups, political groups, local businesses and all sorts of vendors. The event was attended by several hundred people and the crowd spanned a range of ages and identities. Rainbows everywhere!
Battenkill Valley Pride Festival, hosted by Battenkill Valley Pride in partnership with Lower Adirondack Pride, was charming in its smaller size and layout. Not to mention, there were goats. (One of the booths was selling goat milk soap and such.) The location, Pompanuck Farm, is a small farm / cafe-bakery / venue that struck us all as enchanting. The Round House (the on site cafe-bakery) was selling giant chocolate chip cookies (fab) and slices of the sourdough pizza for which they’re locally famous. Our local library was in attendance, as were a number of vendors, local businesses and craftspeople.
The Pride Cruise was a blast. Aboard the Horicon (our boat), we had a table set up to meet and greet those in attendance and spread the word about Easton Mountain. The weather was perfect, the DJ was bumpin’ hits and our group had a great time while meeting a whole lot of new people who live in the area but were previously unaware of EM’s existence! Nearing the end of the voyage, we pulled a name for the free raffle. We’ll be welcoming the winner to his free retreat later this year.
The spirit of Pride lives in our joy and our advocacy year-round.
Happy Pride ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
A New Pump House!
Some projects are easy to see. Others happen underground, inside utility buildings, or behind walls.
Those behind-the-scenes improvements are some of the most important investments we make, and we could not have done this without your support.
One of the most significant infrastructure projects completed at Easton Mountain in recent years was the replacement of our aging pump house.
While guests may never set foot inside the building, the impact of this project is felt every day throughout the property.
The new pump house is the heart of Easton’s upgraded water system. It provides storage, filtration, treatment, and softening that meet current standards and support future growth.
Beyond replacing aging equipment, it protects guest health and safety while providing cleaner, better-tasting water, reducing sulfur odors, and ensuring Easton can meet today’s requirements while preparing for tomorrow’s needs.
Every shower, every meal prepared in the kitchen, every guest room, and every retreat experience is improved by this upgrade!
The generosity of our donors, volunteers and dedicated staff helped make this project possible. Your support ensures that Easton remains safe, welcoming, and sustainable for years to come.
Thank you!
Easton Mountain is ever-improving. Please consider contributing a recurring or one-time donation. Donate Here →
Looking Back, Looking Forward
Last year, during Easton Mountain’s 25th anniversary weekend, a conversation was recorded featuring EM’s founder, John Stasio, and Harry Faddis, one of Easton Mountain’s first, championing members. They spoke of Easton’s origins, its purpose, and their hopes for its ever-unfolding future.
When asked how it came to be, to begin with, John reflects, “Easton Mountain was a continuation of something we started a decade earlier in Boston, all of which was born out of the existential, spiritual crisis that came from living through HIV/AIDS epidemic.” Grief and fear rocked the gay community, and the country as a whole. “We were, as a community, in a spiritual crisis.”
Turning to meditation, mindfulness groups and developing a massage practice proved more useful and healthy than his initial, self-destructive coping mechanisms. The skills and connections made during that time led John to co-organizing retreats for gay men to come together. “We started these retreats to bring people together in an environment where we could celebrate life, try to do healing work together — meaning, on the spiritual level — emotional healing, movement, yoga, dancing, storytelling, and celebration.”
Amongst the men hosting and attending these retreats over the years, there was talk of, “we should have a center, we should have a place—” and, as John puts it, “[the] archetypes of idealistic community were present in the ethos of what we were doing.” They started looking at properties.
Years passed before John found a “dilapidated” property that was at one time The Phoenix Club, a naturist resort. Funding was raised, and the purchase was made. They had ‘a place’.
Harry was one of the first people to move to Easton Mountain as a resident. “We became, from the very start, a residential community. And people are curious about that. That’s why they sometimes come here to see what’s going on, you know, what’s going on behind the scenes. They come here to volunteer, to see what we’re doing. And I don’t think that we would have been sustainable if we had not had this group of people who were committed to live here.”
As a residential community, Easton Mountain is unique in that, “we are not gathered around one spiritual concept or one unifying concept–– People who come here generally are presumed to be serious about their spiritual life, and they usually are. They’re trying to figure out as queer people how they can navigate this thing called spirituality because they have all, almost all of them, have had a negative experience with organized religion.”
Harry continues, “There are some people who are serious about being Jews or Christians or Buddhists or Catholics. And we encourage them to be the fullest Catholic or Jew that they can be. And also we offer some assistance and thoughtfulness and experience [for] people who are practicing other spiritual practices. Like AA, I practice that. That’s my spiritual practice. There are people who try on what it’s like to be a pagan, what that’s like for them. Whoever is outwardly practicing their devotion, that’s what we want to encourage.”
On ‘gay spirituality’, as a concept, John poses the consideration, “When I’m practicing Christianity is that ‘gay spirituality’ because I’m gay?” He goes on to elaborate that ‘gay spirituality’ is nuanced. “We ‘queer’ our traditions— traditions that have excluded the queer experience. That’s one piece of ‘gay spirituality’ that takes place here.” He adds, “There’s a belief that there’s a spiritual component to embracing one’s sexuality— the acceptance of who we are opens us to a different kind of spiritual insight.”
Throughout their conversation, Harry & John return to the word ‘particularity’. They speak of the healing available when a group gathers who have a particular thing in common. I believe that’s especially true when that commonality allows and celebrates the many differences that remain. Whether it’s sexuality, gender identity, a set of spiritual beliefs or values or a common goal, Easton Mountain provides a sanctuary, a sacred place set apart from the mundane, for people to gather together. Aside from its programming, which centers GBTQ men, Easton Mountain hosts private rental groups of all identities and genders throughout the year, each bringing together people who share something in particular with one another.
Looking to the future…
Harry: “Tell me what you hope.”
John: “I hope we can cultivate a community of people who are mature spiritually and open to the needs of the time as it evolves.”
Harry: “Service, is an important element.”
John: “Yes, service is key. Let’s be of service to one another and the world— How can we instill the desire to be of service in people?”
Easton Mountain is an ever-changing community and sanctuary, established to serve those who are most in need of a sanctuary, a place to gather and celebrate.
Listen to the full conversation between John & Harry below.
(Run time: 40:29)
