Pride Founder Arrest Rocks Community

Close-up of handcuffs being held by a person

A small-town New York pride group has suddenly disbanded after its drag-queen founder, a local school board leader, was arrested for allegedly sending sexual messages to a child under 12.

Story Snapshot

State police say Cazenovia school board vice president and pride founder Travis Longo sent sexually explicit messages to a young child.
Cazenovia Pride Inc. has canceled its pride festival and voted to dissolve the group after the arrest.
Police charged Longo with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child and are asking for other possible victims to come forward.
The case highlights growing concerns about activist adults around children and the lack of transparency after arrests.

Drag Queen School Board Member Charged After Child-Sex Messaging Probe

New York State Police arrested 46-year-old Travis J. Longo of Cazenovia on June 18 and charged him with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, all listed as class A misdemeanors.^[8] Investigators say Longo engaged in a “pattern of sexually explicit communications” with a child under the age of twelve, following a referral that triggered a child exploitation investigation involving several state police units and a county child advocacy center.^[8]

Police have not released the exact content of the alleged messages but say the behavior involved repeated contact, not a single incident.^[8] The child involved has not been named, and officials have not publicly described how the alleged conduct was first discovered.^[8] Longo was transported to Madison County centralized arraignment court, but the available reporting does not yet show how he pleaded, whether bail was set, or what the next court dates will be.^[3]

Pride Group Cancels Festival And Shuts Down After Founder’s Arrest

Travis Longo was not only a drag performer but also the founder of Cazenovia Pride Fest and a longtime leader in the local LGBTQ group Cazenovia Pride Inc.^[5] After his arrest became public, the organization posted a statement announcing that it was canceling this year’s pride festival and all related events and that it was dissolving as an organization.^[5] The group said the decision “follows serious criminal charges against Travis Longo” and stressed that he no longer has any affiliation with the group.^[6]

Local and national outlets have highlighted that Longo also served as vice president of the Cazenovia Central School District Board of Education, giving him direct influence over policies affecting local children.^[10] His dual role as a school board leader and pride organizer, while also performing in drag, is driving wider attention and concern among parents who already question activist access to kids in schools.^[10] For now, there is no public record of any internal school board findings, disciplinary steps, or a formal resignation tied to the arrest.

Police Seek Other Victims As Questions Grow About Systems Around Kids

State Police say they believe there may be additional victims and are asking anyone with information to contact Troop D headquarters and reference the assigned case number.^[8] That kind of public appeal signals that investigators think the alleged behavior could extend beyond a single child and that other minors might have received similar explicit messages from the same adult.^[4] It also means the case may grow in scope as digital evidence and witness accounts come in.

New York law makes endangering the welfare of a child a crime when an adult knowingly acts in a way likely to harm a child’s physical, mental, or moral welfare.^[19] Even though the charges here are misdemeanors, the accusation involves sexual content and a very young child, which most parents see as crossing the brightest possible line.^[8] At the same time, the underlying complaint, device forensics, and full police report have not been released, so the public record right now rests almost entirely on the state police press statement and media summaries, without a visible defense response.^[3]