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 ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
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)
