The Boston Globe has reported that Linda DeMarco, Boston Pride’s long-time board president, will resign this summer “to make way for new leadership in response to activists who have boycotted the group to protest its lack of inclusion.”
DeMarco had previously been reluctant to step aside, instead saying the board would fill vacancies and expand its number to boost diversity. This week, she told the Globe that she intends to step down, and that her exit plan is “a little accelerated now because I think the boycott is really hurting the community.”
The timing of the leadership reshuffling will likely jeopardize the 50th anniversary celebration of Boston Pride, which has already been twice postponed due to the coronavirus and was loosely rescheduled for the fall. Boston Pride, a joyful celebration of LGBTQ identities, has become the largest single-day parade in New England and provides a huge economic boost to Boston.
But activists who have been agitating for change in Boston Pride — calling it whitewashed and “trans-exclusionary” — have already stepped into the gap, upstaging it with events of their ownto markPride Month.
On Saturday, Trans Resistance MA will host its second annual vigil for Black Trans Lives, starting with a march from Nubian Square to Franklin Park and ending with a rally and performances. This week, four groups, including Trans Resistance, staged a political power play by persuading every major candidate for mayor to abandon Boston Pride’s scheduled political forum and instead attend their own.
Their new relevance signals a remarkable changing of the guard in Boston LGBTQ leadership and a warning that even within progressive organizations, leaders can be dismissed as establishment, antidemocratic, and unrepresentative of the grass roots.
“A year later, the movement has won,” if DeMarco and other board members step down, said Sasha Goodfriend, director of MassNOW, which cosponsored the alternative mayoral forum this week. “It’s a huge testament to the power of grass-roots organizing that this volunteer-led initiative was successful.”
Read the complete Globe story here.
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