Pride For The People’s Statement Comes As Response to Boston Pride’s Decision to Dissolve the LGBTQIA+ Organization
BOSTON—Pride for the People, along with numerous other groups including Trans Resistance, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, Urban Pride, the Center for Black Equity, Boston Black Pride, and Boston Dyke March, have spent the past year pushing for a long-overdue transformation of Boston Pride. While we’ve been excited and encouraged by the wider community support for the boycott, our ultimate goal was to see the organization transition to new leadership that represents the diverse voices and needs of our community. Our demands were for transparency, community participation, and democratic decision-making. We see today’s statement by the Board as their final rejection of those demands.
Today, (July 11) we were disappointed to learn the board of Boston Pride — who as of February, consisted of Linda DeMarco, Martha Plaza, Malcolm Carey, Tina Rosado, and Deborah Drew — decided to dissolve rather than respond to criticism and work with the community to transform the organization. Pride belongs to the community, it is not owned by these five individuals.
In our efforts to assist in a transition to new leadership, we repeatedly reached out to Boston Pride. However, the board of Boston Pride refused to meet with and chose to work in isolation, without transparency, outreach, or participation of the community. The Boston Pride Board spent thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars, paying a consulting firm to help them maintain their power and to finally teach them about structural racism. In the end, instead of working with the community to usher in new leadership for the movement, they drove the organization into the ground.
Though they claim to care about the community and Pride, these actions threaten the future of Pride events in the city, put into question the status of funds the volunteers have spent numerous hours raising for the community and erase the institutional knowledge that helped Boston Pride to run large scale events serving the LGBTQ community.
With Boston Pride dissolving, we are eager to know:
- Why did Boston Pride choose to dissolve, rather than transition, the organization?
- What will Boston Pride do with funds raised by the community, including the community fund?
Additionally, we commit to working with other organizations in the city to build back Boston Pride stronger and better than ever. We share a vision of Boston Pride that is both a celebration and advances liberation. We look forward to a Pride that works hard at being inclusive, accessible, and intersectional; one that amplifies the voices and responds to the needs of the most disadvantaged in our community.
About Pride For The People
Pride for the People is a grassroots organization comprised of former Boston Pride volunteers and concerned community leaders and individuals advocating for a community-centered Boston Pride. Pride for the People is committed to facilitating a transformation that results in a Boston Pride Organization … (read the rest of their mission here.)
[From A News Release]
EDITOR’S NOTE: To read the story written by The Rainbow Times about Boston Pride’s decision to dissolve the organization, click here.
