If you’re the liberal, progressive Democrat in charge of one of the biggest blue states in the country, how badly do you have to screw up to manage to get yourself banned from the gay pride parade? That’s something of a mystery, but New York Governor Kathy Hochul has somehow managed the feat. Thus far she’s only been “disinvited” from the gay pride parade in Buffalo, but other groups, including New York City (the largest pride parade in the country each year), are considering following suit. But this wasn’t because she suddenly switched parties and endorsed some sort of “don’t say gay” bill or anything like that. This is one of the wonkier protests you’ll see on the left this year because it revolves around Medicaid payments and the federal 340B drug pricing program. (NY Post)

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.

A statement from the Pride Center of Western NY went on to say, “We have not arrived at this decision lightly and we are saddened to have to make this stand.” Yes, it’s apparently a sad day all the way around.

What Hochul is doing is a carryover from the tenure of Andrew Cuomo, who she replaced. And it’s really not specifically “anti-gay,” but instead an effort to bail out the state’s cratering budget. The 340b program requires pharmaceutical companies that do business with Medicaid to offer deep discounts on certain drugs to hospitals and clinics that serve low-income communities. But the Governor’s plan will move many of those patients to a new program called NYRx which doesn’t offer those discounts. The savings realized by the state will now go directly into New York’s coffers instead.

If you’re still not seeing what this has to do with the gay pride parade, bear with me. This change will impact a lot of people, including those receiving recovery treatment for opioid addiction. But it will also remove the discounts for HIV/AIDS drugs. Under the current program, those prescriptions can be obtained very cheaply. Without the 340b benefits, those drugs can literally cost tens of thousands of dollars per month.

So now you see the connection to the LGBT community. And if we’re being honest, they have a point. This will result in a huge spike in costs for many of those patients.

Will Hochul back down now that she’s been called out by some of the loudest, most visible voices in her base? Keep in mind that Hochul barely won her last election by single digits when she should have easily defeated her opponent by at least twenty points. She’s never been seen by the liberals in her party as a true “progressive.” She comes from the slightly more conservative upstate region, not the Big Apple, so she’s always been eyed suspiciously in her own party. Unfortunately for Hochul, if she bows to this pressure, she will have yet another huge gap in the budget to overcome at a time when high-earners (and high tax-payers) continue to flee the state.