Pride parade comes back to Boston in the summer
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Loading... - Claire Lavigne
- 24 Feb 2023
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Boston’s Pride parade is coming back this June after a three-year hiatus and the dissolvement of the original organizational entity after exclusivity issues.
Pride Month will be celebrated in the Boston Common and City Hall Plaza on June 10 to 11. This year, festivals, block parties and the hallmark parade will be arranged by Boston Pride for the People, a new organization that began planning the event in September 2022, said Jo Trigilio, vice president of Boston Pride for the People.
The new parade will replace Boston Pride, the former organizers who faced allegations of racism and transphobia. Outrage peaked when the board removed “#blacklivesmatter” from a statement originally written by the volunteer workforce, according to pride4thepeople’s website.
“The resigned Volunteer Workforce, along with LGBTQ community leaders of color, demanded the current Pride Board step down, and proposed a transition plan to diversify the board and rewrite the bylaws to include power sharing, checks and balances, and transparency. The Board refused,” the website wrote.
Last year, members of the community held Pop-Up Pride, a smaller-scaled, grassroots festival that sought to reclaim Pride and serve the entirety of the LGBTQ+ community. Now, with the formation of Boston Pride for the People, these efforts are being continued in a larger, long-term iteration.
“We’re a brand new organization, we’re starting completely from scratch,” Trigilio said. “One of the first things we did when we got together is we talked about our vision and our mission and our values … we are all really committed [to] creating a community-centered Pride.”
Trigilio said being community-centered means listening, attending and responding to community voices, which they consider an ongoing process. It also means making Pride a place for everyone.
“We’re being really intentional about racial inclusion, trans inclusion, inclusion of people with disabilities,” Trigilio said.
Boston Pride for the People partners with community groups, plans cultural programming that features QTBIPOC voices, and will shorten the parade in hopes of expanding accessibility. Read More…
