Troy Deputy Mayor Seamus Donnelly, seen here in the 2024 swearing-in ceremony for Mayor Carmella Mantello, is dealing with backlash for his support for President Donald Trump.

Seamus Donnelly is Troy’s deputy mayor and a lifelong city resident. He’s also gay.

Donnelly, 38, came out when he was 25 and is now married. In recent years, he organized the city’s 50th commemoration of the Stonewall Riots and assisted with the creation of Troy Pride Night Out. He speaks with, well, pride about both events.

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“Troy is so gay, so we asked why we don’t have an annual event,” Donnelly told me. “We didn’t want to take away from the big event in Albany. We wanted something that felt unique to Troy.”

Donnelly is also a Republican and, like most in the party, a supporter of President Donald Trump. In January, at the time of Trump’s inauguration, Donnelly wrote “Welcome Back 45/47” on his personal Facebook page.

To many of you, that won’t seem noteworthy. But for some in Troy and beyond, it most certainly was — particularly after Trump issued a Day One executive order declaring the government would recognize only two unchangeable sexes and banning the use of federal money “to promote gender ideology.”

Almost immediately, Donnelly told me, he started receiving messages from people demanding that he........

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