I went to Rochester’s Pride parade yesterday. At the last parade I attended, three years ago, there were no Republican candidates, but some committee members marched. Yesterday, nothing, nada, niente, rien du tout.
Our Pride parade is a pretty tame event that’s been going on for 40 years. The most risque thing you’ll see there is a few guys without shirts and some drag queens. From the perspective of local politics, attending it is like attending a parade for Columbus Day, St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo. In other words, it’s a check-off for any candidate, and lots of Democrats, including some candidates from the suburbs, were walking yesterday.
It’s also an opportunity for the city to show off, so we saw vehicles from many different departments including, of course, fire trucks. What we didn’t see was an iota of presence of the county, because the head of county government, a Republican, wants to repeat her failed run for Congress and she’s cracking down by refusing to hoist a rainbow flag at the county buildings, and threatening Democrats who flew one out of their windows with arrest.
When the New York state legislature finally voted to allow gay marriage, thanks to some Republicans in tough districts, some of whom have either retired or been voted out of office thanks to Conservative Party spoilers running from the right, it was polling around 60/40. I would imagine current polling would run 73/27 but nobody’s bothering to check because nobody cares anymore. In New York the issue of gay rights is settled everywhere but in the minds of the Republican Party.