Calling for transformation within the Boston Pride organization, the Boston-based GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) has announced it will not participate in Boston Pride’s official events this year. In a recent press release, GLAD explains they’re doing this to stand in solidarity with Trans Resistance MA and Pride 4 the People (P4TP), which have called for a boycott of Boston Pride’s 2021 parade and festival. GLAD is one of the nation’s leading legal advocacy nonprofits for LGBTQ people.
Though its 2021 parade and festival have been postponed, tentatively until this fall, Boston Pride organizers are planning on a series of virtual events in June.
States GLAD in the recent press release:
Pride is about protest, celebration, and community and should be a welcoming, safe space for all. Boston deserves a Pride in which Black and POC LGBTQ+ community members have a strong voice in leadership and which works to address the issues causing harm to our community, including systemic racism and police violence.
Guided by our organizational values of justice and lived equality; inclusion, equity, and mutual respect; anti-racism; and collaboration GLAD will not be participating in official Boston Pride events in 2021. In solidarity with Trans Resistance MA and Pride 4 the People GLAD supports the Trans Resistance March and Vigil for Black Trans Lives taking place on June 12.
The Trans Resistance March, Vigil and Pride Fest, hosted by Trans Resistance MA, begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday, June 12, at Franklin Park in Jamaica Plain.
In December, Boston Pride announced plans to “institute transformational change within our organization regarding diversity, access, inclusion, equity and equality.” However, the board of Boston Pride is still facing resistance.
Pride 4 the People (P4TP), a grassroots organization of former Boston Pride volunteers, community leaders and individuals, along with Trans Resistance MA and other community organizations, are calling for the boycott unless the current board of Boston Pride resigns.
“We are asking that LGBTQ+ organizations who are committed to taking concrete action to end structural racism and white-centeredness stand in solidarity with us during this historic moment,” states P4TP.
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