LGBT groups have issued an extraordinary rebuke to Gov. Kathy Hochul — disinviting her from attending the June 4 Buffalo Gay Pride Parade over a dispute about budget funding.
Other LGBT groups across the state put out a statement of solidarity with the Buffalo contingent, too, raising the specter of Hochul being disinvited to other parades — including the largest in the nation, the NYC Gay Pride Parade.
“We have informed Governor Hochul and her Administration that their request to attend the Buffalo Pride Parade and Festival has been declined,” said a statement released by the Pride Center of Western NY and Evergreen Health on Tuesday.
“We have not arrived at this decision lightly and we are saddened to have to make this stand,” the center said.
“In the Governor’s budget, she advances a Cuomo-era policy that redirects revenue generated by the federal 340B drug pricing program away from community health centers and into the State’s coffers.”
The 340b program requires any pharmaceutical company that does business with Medicaid to provide deep discounts on prescription drugs to certain hospitals and clinics that serve low-income or needy populations.
Those medical facilities can then get reimbursed for those drugs by health plans at higher rates and pocket the difference.
But in an effort to curb its related costs, the state plans to transition Medicaid members to a new pharmacy benefit plan known as NYRx — a move that LGBT groups say will mean a loss of services for many of their members.
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo changed the 340b program in the 2021 state budget but called for the alteration to take place this year. Hochul is behind the change.
The Democrats who lead the Assembly and Senate have rejected Hochul’s plan, but budget negotiations are ongoing.
The new state budget is due Saturday, April 1.
The pride center said in its statement, “The 340B program is an essential, predictable, and stable funding source for community health centers and covered entities. Without this funding, our organization and others like us would have been unable to meet the demands of the COVID crisis.”
“This isn’t about money. It’s about our ability to meet the needs of this community, prevent illness, end the AIDS epidemic, and help our patients thrive.”
Showing solidarity are the New Pride Agenda, Equality NY, Housing Works, Trillium Health, African Services Committee, Albany Damien Center, Callen Lorde, Harlem United and Alliance for Positive Change.
“This budget action will harm the state’s HIV response and dismantle the safety net for countless LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers, while crippling capacity to provide unconditional care to some of our state’s most vulnerable patients,” the groups said in their own statement.
LGBT parade organizers are known for excluding people from the parade they don’t agree with.
Last year, New York City organizers excluded NYPD officers from the Manhattan Gay Pride Parade.
Hochul’s office emphasized the 340B program was not being eliminated and that providers will still have access to reduced drug prices and will be reimbursed by Medicaid for those drugs. Â
 “Governor Hochul is a steadfast supporter of the LGBTQ+ community and has the record to back it up, using newly-signed legislation and state funding to lift up LGBTQ+ individuals in every corner of the State,” a rep said in a statement Tuesday. “Due to pending litigation from Evergreen Health on this particular issue, we will not comment further.”
