This LGBTQ+ Pride month, a native of the Adirondacks who now serves on the New York City Council is highlighting a key meaning of Pride—the importance of community—using his powerful personal story to do so.
Erik Bottcher, who grew up in Wilmington, New York and graduated from Lake Placid High School, was a guest on this weekend’s episode of NBC5 In Depth. The Democrat said his childhood was “idyllic in many ways,” with a wonderful family and plenty of time spent in the beautiful outdoors of the Wilmington area. However, he said when he reached adolescence, he struggled a lot and felt highly isolated. He said he was the only gay person he knew.
“Remember, this is in the early ’90s, before the internet, before we had LGBT role models on television,” Bottcher said. “We didn’t have ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ or anything like that. And all I knew about being gay was that it was something strange and something bad, and I made the decision that I didn’t want to live anymore, and that I didn’t want to continue on.”
Bottcher said following a series of suicide attempts, he received life-saving care at a mental health facility in Saratoga.
“First of all, it’s why I’m here—the mental health care that I was able to receive there,” Bottcher told NBC5 In Depth. “And I talk about these experiences because we have to break down stigma around the issues of mental health. People are so hesitant to talk about mental health. If you’ve got a broken arm, you’re not going to hesitate to ask for medical attention. But if you have mental health challenges, there’s so much stigma attached with asking for help and getting help. We’ve got to change that.”
The council member said he focuses on positive, uplifting messages when speaking to young people.
“You have these messages of negativity being put out there about our community,” Bottcher noted. “We need to be out there with the opposite message: the message of positivity and inclusivity, telling young people, ‘You are okay the way that you are, you are perfect the way you are, and you have nothing to be ashamed of.'”
Bottcher went on to say if any LGBTQ+ youth are feeling alone, as he once did, he wants them to hear an uplifting message of community.
“There is a light at the end of the tunnel and one day you will find happiness,” Bottcher said. “You will find community and you will find acceptance. That’s the kind of hope that I try to communicate to kids when I talk to young people. I try to communicate to them what the possibilities of life are because they’re tremendous.”
Bottcher said he is proud to represent a district that is home to the historic Stonewall Inn, which is the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.