PHOTO BY CAROLYN SIMPSON
On a sunny afternoon last June, as rainbow flags swayed in the lawn outside Emanuel Lutheran Church, Ben Gelinas was no longer worried about logistics, turnout, or whether everything had gone according to plan. He was watching his sons.
Just hours earlier, Gelinas had been hard at work setting up for Pleasantville Pride’s inaugural celebration alongside an army of ecstatic committee members and volunteers, including Vice President Carol Creighton, Secretary Sandi Whynott, Communications Courtney Davis Walker, Mary Breen, Chris Mueller, Ali Leisawitz, Amanda Morante Wolin, Pastor Kevin O’Hara, and Gelinas’s family. His husband, Clay, along with his parents and aunt, helped hang posters, collect raffle donations from local businesses, and watch their two sons–support which Gelinas said was essential in bringing the event to life. “It was not just an immediate family event, but an extended family event,” Gelinas explained. “For the boys to have their great aunt and grandparents there was also really special.”
But as the organizing team put the finishing touches on their setup–which included food trucks, a DJ, kids craft stations, a bounce house, and much more–nothing could have prepared them for what the day would bring. As the celebrations began, families poured in. Then more. And more.
“Leading up to the event, whether it was a sponsor or a food truck, they’d say ‘how many people are you expecting to show up?’ And we would be like, ‘I don’t know, 200 maybe? We have no idea,’ and we were blown away,” Gelinas said. “There were over 1,000 attendees the day of the event.”
For Gelinas’s sons, Roane, 10, and Reid, 7, the moment was particularly impactful: a sea of neighbors, friends, and strangers showed up to share in the joy and support families like theirs.
“It made them feel like our family belonged here as well, and that our family wasn’t just accepted, but we were celebrated,” he shared.
Eleven years ago, Gelinas and his husband Clayton McPhail decided to leave New York City and find a new place closer to Ben’s family to raise their children. After touring multiple towns in Westchester, they found Pleasantville and knew it was the place they’d call home. “Every time we visited Pleasantville, it was so warm and welcoming and down to earth. That’s really what sold us on it, just every time we came, I was like, ‘this feels right,’” he explained.
Shortly after moving in, Gelinas recalls his neighbors stopping by to introduce themselves and welcome the couple to the area, a seemingly simple gesture which demonstrated the heart of the community.
They enrolled their sons in nursery school at Emanuel Lutheran Church, where they met Pastor O’Hara. This budded into a close friendship, and together they attended a Pride event hosted by a local DEI group. However, the group disbanded shortly after, leaving Pleasantville without a Pride event in 2024. Pastor O’Hara then decided to pitch an idea to Gelinas to start something new.
“Ben is just a resource of imagination, creativity, drive. I’ve learned that he’s also incredibly gifted in leadership and bringing what was originally just a small idea into a much larger one,” Pastor O’Hara said.
Gelinas jumped on the opportunity and began pulling together a team to organize the event. Despite planning to host the celebration for Pride Month in June, their first team meeting wasn’t until March, putting them on a tight schedule to coordinate sponsors, activities, and logistics.
At first, they worried that the community wouldn’t be able to support the event on such short notice, but as they began their outreach, everything fell into place. “Every time that we expected a no, there was always a yes,” said Pastor O’Hara.
In the end, they had sponsorships from dozens of local businesses, 13 raffle donations, and the support of the mayor, multiple local religious institutions, and all three PTAs and principals who shared the event in their newsletters. “When we started it, we weren’t sure how it would be received, or what kind of feedback we’d get, but it was clear that there was a real desire to host something like this in town, and that it was the right place for it,” Gelinas explained. “It definitely was a team effort,” he continued. “Everybody put a lot of thought and effort into creating a special, safe, inclusive, welcoming event.”
Davis Walker, who leads communications efforts for the event, expressed a similar feeling of pride in the team and the community that supported it. “This is a community that truly cares for one another and goes out of its way to make people feel safe, included, and valued. The support for Pleasantville Pride has been incredible, and we can’t wait to see what this year brings,” she said.
She added that Pleasantville residents consistently show up for their neighbors, from seniors helping young parents with childcare to neighbors shoveling and running errands for those who are snowed in. “I really admire the way people show up for each other,” Davis Walker said. “To me, Pleasantville Pride stands for inclusivity and the belief that each and every person in our village belongs here.”
Gelinas further affirmed the sense of communal support for the celebration, describing “the turnout of how many people came and supported the event, I think it really was eye opening. I feel like Pleasantville has always been welcoming, and that event took it to another level.”
For Pastor O’Hara, the event’s impact extended far beyond what was happening on the grounds of the church. When he pitched the idea to church leadership to host Pleasantville Pride, he wasn’t sure if they would be willing to take on such a large event, especially one organized by an outside group. “Sometimes churches and religious institutions can get so caught up in just their Sunday or holy day operations, that they don’t realize. They don’t go out to the community and find out what is missing,” he explained.
Instead, when the church agreed to host Pleasantville Pride and partner with other organizations and religious institutions to make their voices heard, it was a “novel time” according to Pastor O’Hara. “Let’s partner. Let’s provide the grounds. Let’s provide the place where people can meet. Let’s make sure that this event is safe and promoted, and let’s do all we can, but let them have the voice,” he said of the church’s decision.
The event also united multiple religious institutions from around Westchester. The Pleasantville Presbyterian Church, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Pleasantville Community Synagogue, and Temple Beth El in Chappaqua came together to sponsor the celebration, allowing for broader representation and support. “I never think that we’re the right fit for everybody. I don’t believe that,” said Pastor O’Hara. “So, I wanted to make sure that people knew that there was so much more involvement and so much more community here.”
While the Pleasantville Pride celebrations went on outside of Emanuel Lutheran Church, other local institutions supported the cause in their own ways. On the same day, the Episcopal Church held a renaming service. “To know that there were 80 people in the congregation worshiping, and there were several transgender youths who got to go through that renaming experience and get to pick their own names, was empowering,” Pastor O’Hara said.
Working to help others has long been the driving force of his life, said the pastor, at times a self-described “workaholic.” But this sole focus has shifted recently, as he finds himself more preoccupied with what’s going on at home than at the church: he and his husband became new fathers this year, with two daughters, Reagan and Bridget, both under one year old. “I decided that the priority when I wasn’t in worship was going to be my kids, and that’s been a big change for me. It’s been a beautiful change,” he said,
He described the joy of seeing his daughters smile for the first time and begin to develop personalities of their own. “Those are the things I love about being a father, seeing the children already grow, have their own personalities, smile.” He proudly held up a photo of Bridget, his youngest daughter, swaddled just after she was born. “When I think about joy, I think about her in this pose,” he said.
As the craze of the previous few months settled down and the Pleasantville Pride celebrations were about to kick off, the organizing team posed for a photo beneath the rainbow balloon arch draped over the entry. The sun was beaming, excited families began pouring in, and the group was finally able to sit back and enjoy the results of their hard work.
Immediately, the impact on the community was palpable. At one table, beneath a sign that read “What Today Means to Me,” attendees were urged to pause, reflect, and write down their thoughts on slips of paper dropped into a box for organizers to read later. Messages came in from all corners of the community: from longtime residents, parents, and especially from LGBTQ youth who, for the first time, saw themselves reflected so visibly in their own hometown.
“If you’ve ever questioned whether you belong or if there’s a place in this world where you’ll be loved as you are, just look around. This is what love looks like. This is what home feels like,” wrote Jenn G. “The best part for us was during drag story time when the reader said she reminds herself sometimes that she has two moms and how lucky that makes her feel. Our son turned to find us, looked at us, and started beaming with pride. It made us so happy,” wrote another, anonymous attendee. Another wrote: “Today was so healing. What we saw today – families cheering, kids dancing, churches showing up for us, that’s the real Pleasantville.”
In recognition of its impact, Pleasantville Pride was named “Rookie Business of the Year” and will be honored at the Businessperson of the Year Awards on April 29th.
For the team behind the event, the highlights of the day were not only in watching how safe and supported their neighbors felt but also seeing the impact on their own families. Gelinas noted that while his own sons might be too young to truly understand the significance of Pleasantville Pride for their community, he hopes that the amount of heart put into planning it and the subsequent turnout speaks for itself.
“I hope that they realize what the impact of that day was, that all of their friends’ families came out and supported a Pride event, and what that means for us as a family,” he said. “I was deeply moved by the comments people made on social media, the gratitude for hosting the event and what it meant to people in the community that have lived here their whole lives,” he continued. “It brought me to tears multiple times leading up to the event, reading them, and just knowing that I had a part in that, in making somebody feel like there was a safe space for them, and that they had a space where they belonged.”
“Bigger, Bolder, Brighter” for Pleasantville Pride 2026
The theme for this year’s iteration? “Bigger, bolder, brighter,” Davis Walker declared. Many crowd favorites from last year will be returning, but the organizers hope to make Pleasantville Pride 2026 filled with even more music, games, food trucks, and fun for all ages. “I think it’s going to be similar to last year’s field, but hopefully even more attendees, which I’m looking forward to,” she went on. From the church’s end, Pastor O’Hara encouraged further collaboration with other local religious institutions. He notes that the Presbyterian and Episcopal Churches recently welcomed two new pastors, both female clergy, who he looks forward to working with.
For Gelinas, his advocacy and support for local LGBTQ youth extends beyond the event itself. This year, in addition to his work to expand the Pride celebration, he will be the keynote speaker representing Pleasantville Pride at Pace University’s Lavender Graduation Ceremony, a special celebration which honors LGBTQ graduates and allies. “I felt like the event was pure joy and happiness, and it made me feel very proud that I call Pleasantville home,” he said.
Pleasantville Pride will take place on May 30th from 2-5 p.m. at the Emanuel Lutheran Church. For more information, follow @pleasantvillepride on Instagram or visit pleasantvillepride.org.
