• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox
  • Modern Family’s Julie Bowen Crushing On Harry Styles; Reveals She Was Once In Love With A Gay Woman, “but she didn’t love me back”
  • Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’
  • Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

Boston Pride President Resigns Amid Boycotts by LGBTQ Activists; Pride Parade Postponement in Question

Brian Bell June 10, 2021 Leave a Comment

boston pride

More than a year of increasingly contentious accusations of “racism” and “trans exclusion” against Boston Pride leadership by Local Queer BIPOC groups came to a head Wednesday when Boston Pride president Linda DeMarco said she would resign this summer. The announcement cast some doubt on whether the city’s Pride parade –already postponed to Fall from COVID — will happen at all.

‘The Movement has Won’

Over the last 18 months, BIPOC and trans groups have called for a boycott of Boston Pride even as vacancies on Boston Pride’s all-white board emerged, choosing instead to organize separate events including Pride 4 the People and Trans Resistance MA’s vigil for Black Trans Lives. That lack of diversity on the board and its DeMarco’s announcement came after multiple clashes with advocacy groups calling the Pride leadership “whitewashed” and its events “trans-exclusionary.”

Speaking to the Boston Globe, DeMarco said her resignation was accelerated by the boycott. “I think the boycott is really hurting the community,” she said. Her exit also comes as political support for Boston Pride took a heavy blow as every major Boston mayoral candidate declined to participate in Boston Pride’s political forum, choosing instead to attend events held by the activist groups opposing Boston Pride.

Boston Pride’s response to the murder of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests in the city was quickly perceived as lacking by activists and volunteers associated with Boston Pride. When the all-white Pride leadership team rejected and rewrote the statement drafted by its own communications team, it also addressed Floyd’s killing at the hands of Minneapolis police without consulting members of its Black Pride subcommittee. The statement was quickly judged to be insufficient by insiders and led to 80% of the organization’s volunteers to quit in protest. And quite simply, without the volunteers the Pride parade would not be possible.

[The Boston Pride parade] might look different. In fact, I hope it looks different … that’s the whole point.

Jo Trigilio, Pride 4 the people

Almost immediately activists claimed DeMarco’s planned exit as a victory. “A year later, the movement has won,” said Sasha Goodfriend, director of MassNOW. “It’s a huge testament to the power of grassroots organizing that this volunteer-led initiative was successful.”

“The pandemic and the reckoning of our unjust racial past has just claimed the Pride committee because they were unable to actually do the right thing over many, many years,” NECN’s Sue O’Connell said. “There is no putting it back,” added Jo Trigilio, founder of Pride 4 the People.

Boston Pride Parade in Question

DeMarco’s exit comes just a few short months before the already-delayed annual Pride parade is set to occur. The announcement of her intended departure along with the belief that other board members will leave as well, has led some to believe that the 50th anniversary of Boston Pride is likely be postponed a third time.

Demarco told the Boston Globe she’d “leave that task to her successors.” The naming of new leadership is up in the air due activists’ calls to boycott filling board vacancies as well until all current board members resign and a new board representative of the Boston’s diverse LGBTQ communities is seated.

“Since there’s going to be a new board, we’ll let them make that decision,” DeMarco said. “It’s a major volunteer organization that takes up an enormous amount of time and it’s one of those positions where nobody is ever happy with you.”

The activists are not concerned. “It might look different. In fact, I hope it looks different,” Trigilio said. “That’s the whole point.”

With the traditional early June Boston Pride date just past, an apparent seismic change of leadership in the offing but without a set schedule, attention turns to the mayoral race currently underway, and while candidates have agreed to attend programs set up by the the activists, the delayed forum by the until now powerful Pride leadership group is four days away and it’s not clear that any of the six candidates have committed to appear.

All that said, on the national level the turn of events and even the sequence of them and the outcome in Boston mirrors upheavals along generational, racial, gender and inclusiveness lines and breakpoints in the organizations running Pride in most of the country’s biggest cities.

In September 2020, just after celebrating Stonewall 50, New York City elected the most diverse board ever to take the organization forward.

And that was just months after Los Angeles Pride announced a protest march in solidarity with black communities would replaced Pride that year, but was soon clear that leaders hadn’t consulted any leaders of the Black community. Black leadership accused Pride of “saviorism”, of using the Black Lives Name without permission and called them out for claiming solidarity while touting its “strong and unified partnership with law enforcement.” The board was replaced and Pride moved out of West Hollywood after decades.

And there have been and will be many others as the LGBTQ leadership faces generational change and the maturation of the understandings around intersectional discrimination, racism in our communities that perpetuate inequality.

The LGBTQ reckoning with race didn’t really start in earnest until the 1993 March on Washington which included more than token participation and leadership by people of color, made race a priority, and infused all aspects of the programs with education and acknowledgement of racism. The history of the creation of gay identities is also the history of unequal enforcement and violence by law enforcement. This would seem to be a logical and far from sudden set of changes.

Boston Pride: Previously on Towleroad

Image courtesy of Will Zunker/Creative Commons

Topics: News, Pride More Posts About: Transgender, Boston, Massachusetts

Related Posts
  • North Dakota Republican floats fining transgender people $1,500 if they use ‘wrong’ pronouns
  • Rainbow signs to be replaced in N.J. middle school
  • Meta’s oversight board calls for more inclusive adult nudity policy
  • Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’

    Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Jeff Richmond and Tina Fey want the ‘Mean Girls’ musical movie to have a “fresher palette”. The pair are adapting their musical for the big screen and composer Jeff revealed his …Read More »
  • Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

    Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents. The 61-year-old actress had been friends with Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell – who are the parents of pop star Billie, …Read More »
  • Efforts since George Floyd killing fail to stem US police violence

    Efforts since George Floyd killing fail to stem US police violence

    Published by AFP The US city of Memphis, Tennessee, on January 27, 2023, released footage of the fatal police beating of a 29-year-old Black man, Tyre Nichols Washington (AFP) – The shocking death of Tyre Nichols …Read More »
  • Pope Francis clarifies earlier comments: Homosexuality ‘not a crime’

    Pope Francis clarifies earlier comments: Homosexuality ‘not a crime’

    Published by DPA Pope Francis speaks during the general audience at the Pope Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. Michael Kappeler/dpa Pope Francis has clarified his earlier comments on homosexuality following confusion in recent days, saying: …Read More »
Previous Post: « Barack Obama Isn’t Worried About Gen Z’s Passion for Real Change, Just For His Daughters’ Safety Protesting
Next Post: Stonewall Inn Has Been Under Looming Landlord Ultimatum To Sign Long-Term Lease; ‘There is a need to preserve LGBTQ+ history’ »

Primary Sidebar

Adjacent News

  • Secrets about Catholic priest’s 1966 murder unearthed by reporters in Buffalo

    Secrets about Catholic priest’s 1966 murder unearthed by reporters in Buffalo

  • Booker says he’ll keep trying to pass weed legislation even with House Republicans in charge

    Booker says he’ll keep trying to pass weed legislation even with House Republicans in charge

  • Madison Square Garden’s facial recognition blacklisting sparks outcry

    Madison Square Garden’s facial recognition blacklisting sparks outcry

Good Trash: Going to Read It Somewhere, Y'know

  • ‘Gone Their Separate Ways’: Ryan Reynolds & Jake Gyllenhaal’s Pals Left Scratching Their Heads Over Bizarre Bromance Fallout 

    ‘Gone Their Separate Ways’: Ryan Reynolds & Jake Gyllenhaal’s Pals Left Scratching Their Heads Over Bizarre Bromance Fallout 

  • Steamy! Miranda Lambert Shows Off Shirtless Husband Brendan McLoughlin To Celebrate Their Anniversary

    Steamy! Miranda Lambert Shows Off Shirtless Husband Brendan McLoughlin To Celebrate Their Anniversary

  • ‘Sister Wives’ Alum Leon Brown Debuts Gender-Affirming Top Surgery Seven Months After Announcing New Pronouns

    ‘Sister Wives’ Alum Leon Brown Debuts Gender-Affirming Top Surgery Seven Months After Announcing New Pronouns

RSS Partner Links

  • Sunday Comics
  • 'The View' for the Week of January 30 - 4 Guest Stars Revealed
  • Olivia Wilde And Jason Sudeikis Publicly Hug After Getting Messy During Their Custody Fight
  • Novak Djokovic defeats Stefan Tsitsipas to win 10th Australian Open and 22nd grand slam overall
  • The Telegraph published a photo to ‘exonerate’ Prince Andrew from rape, trafficking
  • Prince William & Kate are getting cooked for their foodbank poverty tourism
  • Jim Jordan Says New Laws Can't 'Stop That Evil' After Tyre Nichols' Death

Most Recent

  • Modern Family’s Julie Bowen Crushing On Harry Styles; Reveals She Was Once In Love With A Gay Woman, “but she didn’t love me back”

    Modern Family’s Julie Bowen Crushing On Harry Styles; Reveals She Was Once In Love With A Gay Woman, “but she didn’t love me back”

  • Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’

    Mean Girls musical movie will have a ‘fresher palette’

  • Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

    Jennifer Coolidge went to the wedding of Billie Eilish’s parents

  • Efforts since George Floyd killing fail to stem US police violence

    Efforts since George Floyd killing fail to stem US police violence

  • Pope Francis clarifies earlier comments: Homosexuality ‘not a crime’

    Pope Francis clarifies earlier comments: Homosexuality ‘not a crime’

  • Rick Astley: I wasn’t cut out to be a pop star

    Rick Astley: I wasn’t cut out to be a pop star

  • Universal Pictures Loses Over $10 Million By Scrapping Madonna’s Biopic: Source

    Universal Pictures Loses Over $10 Million By Scrapping Madonna’s Biopic: Source

  • Spice Girls to reunite for King Charles’ coronation

    Spice Girls to reunite for King Charles’ coronation

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd

Footer

Copyright © 2023 · Log in

×