Lower Cape Pride Parade A Celebration Of Diversity, Unity

ORLEANS – In June 1969, David Bermudez was one of many inside the Stonewall Inn when police raided the famed New York City bar.

 It was dark inside the Greenwich Village establishment, which was a safe haven for members of the gay community to gather. As Bermudez tried to make his way out, he was hit in the head with a club by a police officer. Later on outside the bar, he witnessed police wrenching another man’s neck back with a club, an image that stuck with him for years afterward. 

 The raid marked the start of the legendary Stonewall Riots, a watershed moment in the gay rights movement. Today, Bermudez, who lives in Yarmouthport with his husband, Bob Isadore, is the oldest living veteran of the riots.

 But as the couple made their way down Main Street last Saturday in a red convertible decorated with the Pride flag, Bermudez couldn’t help but think about how far things had come since that night almost 60 years ago. Behind them, a procession of LGBTQ supporters as far as the eye could see trailed them all the way to the Town Cove Tap House across Route 6A.

 “This is not just pride,” Bermudez told the crowd gathered outside the Tap House at the conclusion of the June 13 parade. “This is something that we thought we’d never see.”

 This year’s second annual Lower Cape Pride parade made its way from the Snow Library to the Tap House. Participants sported rainbow Pride colors and held signs of support beneath a cloudless blue sky in a celebration of what organizers call “unity in community.”

“Unity in community for all of us,” Kevin Galligan of the select board said after the parade. “It really is what we’re about. And personally, we need this more than ever.”

Maddi Bauer of Sandwich attended this year’s parade with her little sister.

“I think especially right now it’s really important,” she said of the significance of the Orleans Pride celebrations. “I know that this is the second year they’ve done Lower Cape Pride, so I think the more events that can draw more supporters to come out and show how important it is, the better.”

For Orleans resident Hadley Luddy, state representative for the Fourth Barnstable District, the outpouring of support for the LGBTQ community hit close to home as the mother of a “gay son and trans daughter.”

“I have spent a lot of time in the last few years being so concerned for my children and their safety and well being,” she said. “And days like today give me so much hope in my heart. I just want to thank you for standing with people like my children and with my family.”

Luddy estimated that participation in this year’s parade was double what it was last year. But Michael Herman of the select board said he’s not surprised by how quickly the Lower Cape Pride festivities have caught on.

“I think there’s definitely a strong community of support,” he said. “People were just thankful when it happened and that it’s come to fruition. It’s given us an outlet to come and celebrate together.”

State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Provincetown, who is openly gay, said the parade, organized by the local nonprofit Lower Cape Pride, is evidence of how LGBTQ support is expanding across the peninsula.

“It ain’t just P’Town, honey,” he said.

Cyr took the opportunity to celebrate the work that is being done at the state level to protect members of the LGBTQ community here in Massachusetts. That includes the creation of an affirming health care trust that offers protections and support for gender-affirming healthcare. Cyr had a direct hand in helping create the trust, which currently sits at $5 million.

“This is the strongest damn state in the nation for LGBTQ rights, and it’s going to continue to be so,” he said to cheers. 

At the conclusion of Saturday’s events, Isadore read from a letter written to him and Bermudez thanking them for their ongoing dedication to the cause of LGBTQ rights. 

“The [Stonewall] riots gave way to protest, the protest gave way to a movement, and the movement gave way to a transformation that continues today,” President Barack Obama wrote in the letter.

“Remember, we’re all family,” Bermudez said in his closing remarks.

Last week’s parade was preceded by a Pride Social held at The Alley Bowling and BBQ, featuring a drag show by drag performer Mackenzie Miller, who also performed Saturday at the Tap House.