The Pride Parade went from one end of downtown Altoona to the other, passing in front of the Post Office on 11th Avenue Friday. Mirror photo by William Kibler

When Peg Murphy of Hollidaysburg came out as a lesbian in Indianapolis in the mid-1980s after a time in the Navy, being gay was typically kept “hidden and dark,” Murphy said Friday while taking a break from participation in the Blair County Inclusion Alliance Pride Parade and festival downtown, marking today’s annual National Coming Out Day.

Living openly as gay at that time led to Murphy being spit upon and beaten up — but things got better over the years, with advances like the legalization of gay marriage, said Murphy, 59 — who is married herself with children.

But Friday’s event took place in the context of a nationwide backsliding, according to Murphy: “The current national climate is driving divisiveness and exclusion,” she said. “(A political approach) that allows people to think it’s OK to hate us and do (the kind of) things they used to do.”

The hourslong event drew several hundred people, as well as several vendors, and the mood was festive — as well as briefly defiant when speakers took the stage in Heritage Plaza after the parade.

“Let us celebrate without shame,” said one such speaker, Cassie Kachur, a local activist and educator. “(Let us) gather without fear.”

Kachur spoke of having no fear, but before coming to the event, relatives of two participants — Audra Brantner of Duncansville and Laurie Sigel of State College — had expressed safety concerns.

Both are members of Free Mom Hugs and both are parents of gay children.

Their organization has felt the need to conduct safety trainings under the auspices of the Shapiro administration recently, and before Friday’s event, their attendees took precautions that included warning one another to remain aware of their surroundings, having their phones fully charged and designating a prearranged meeting place in case of trouble that resulted in them being separated, said Sigel, one of the Pennsylvania co-leaders of the national organization.

Potential volunteers based in Johnstown have been so worried that they declined to participate in a recent event there out of fear stoked by Proud Boy members who had lined up across the street from them last year as an intimidation tactic, Sigel said.

On Friday, across from the plaza, there was a small counter-demonstration by a handful of individuals.

But there was no apparent attempt by those counter demonstrators to intimidate event participants.

After the parade, while the counter demonstrators prayed, with one holding up a holy picture, a handful of event participants danced in front of them, seemingly in mocking fashion.

Yet overall, there were no significant issues, according to Altoona Police Sgt. Patrick Tomassetti, who drove a pickup at the head of the parade and was one of several officers present at the plaza and along the parade route. “It was totally chill,” Tomassetti said afterward, summing up.

One of the counter-demonstrators across from the plaza was Mark, from the Niagara Falls area of New York, who declined to give his last name.

A Catholic, Mark was carrying a Rosary and holding a white poster with an inscription made with marker, “God loves those who repent. Accept God into your heart.”

A bicyclist, Mark had noticed reports of the pride event and showed up as a representative of the “faith community,” he said.

He came “for love” and to support a “Christian lifestyle,” he added.

“I’m not here against anybody,” he said.

Married for 45 years, he has worked to “control my passions,” he said.

His message to those in the Pride event would be to engage in the struggle “to overcome temptation,” he said.

“(But) I’m not any better than anybody,” he said.

Concerns about political climate

Brantner, the Free Mom Hugs member, is concerned about the current administration’s approach to governing.

That concern includes worry that her son will be forced out of the military, where he’s served for 18 years.

He would lose the benefits he’s earned, she said.

He and his husband shouldn’t have rights that differ from those of any other married couple, including her straight daughter and her daughter’s husband, Brantner said.

Her fellow Free Mom Hugs member Sigel came to her own current sympathy for gay individuals late, having been “not affirming” when her son came out.

It was only after Sigel engaged in Biblical research that she began to accept him for who he is, she said.

The prevailing national attitude seems to be shifting away from acceptance, as reflected in talk that has occurred in a local school district about eliminating lessons on kindness, as told to Sigel by a new volunteer in her organization.

“Kindness is woke,” Sigel said ironically. “The opposite of woke is asleep,” she added. “I don’t want to be asleep to people who are hurting.”

Loving others

Matt Stumpf of Altoona was one of three straight men stationed at the back of the plaza next to a table with an invitation to “Play catch with a dad.”

Created by a man from York, the organization named after that phrase exists to provide that classic backyard activity to gay people who may have lost out on experiencing their own version after coming out to their own families, if those families felt repelled by such a revelation.

Stumpf’s desire to provide such compensation to those victims of familial rejection comes out of his belief that “every human on the planet needs to be loved and cared for.”

That belief came from his Biblical studies, said Stumpf, a former pastor.

“When Jesus was asked what was the greatest commandment, he said, ‘Love God; love others,'” Stumpf said, when asked what in the Bible supported that belief. “It doesn’t get much simpler,” he added.

No one should be ostracized because they’re being “who they are,” said one of the other men, Phil Jolly of State College.

All of them were attempting to create a “judgment-free zone” to benefit people whose biological family failed to provide one, said the third man, Tom Spencer of State College.

Lesbian Christa Bender of Duncansville attended the pride event to support a community whose members generally don’t have enough “visibility,” she said.

It’s especially important for kids to see adults who are “out,” Bender said.

Being out as an adult shows that “if you’re a queer kid, it’s OK to exist,” said Bender’s friend, a local teacher named Nicole, who asked that her last name not be used.

Bender came out as an adult about 10 years ago, after going through the normal rituals of graduating from high school and college, entering the workforce, getting married and having children.

“I checked all the boxes,” she said.

She probably realized in her heart she was gay in the middle of her teens, but was unwilling to admit it then, she said.

Nicole was “outed” against her will not long ago.

It’s probably for the best, as the encouragement that resulted from people who supported her after that outweighed the distress of the rejection she felt from others who did the opposite, she said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.