NEW PALTZ – Renita Principe Garcia, with clipboard in hand, walked about the parking lot at the New Paltz Middle School and noted the participants getting ready for the Hudson Valley Pride Coalition March prior to noon Sunday.
“The crowd is beautiful, I’m happy to see more diversity in the crowd,” said Garcia, an event organizer.
“My heart is so sorrowful with everything that is going on,” she said. “It is to support our community down south, Texas, Florida, Alabama. All of those southern states, it’s so important to be aware, put it in the newspaper and advocate. We have it pretty easy here.”
The march left the middle school, proceeded down Main Street before making a left toward village hall for festivities across the street at Hasbrouck Park.
The mood was festive during the march, but Principe Garcia and others are well aware that although the LGBT community can live in this county and the region without scrutiny, it is not so in some southern states where their rights are currently being attacked.
