Leading LGBTQ Bay State groups and a frustrated community are expressing dismay and concern the week after Boston Pride’s board of directors announced late last Friday they would “close down the organization.” Important questions remain unanswered about why Boston Pride’s leadership chose not to turn their considerable operations and assets over to others willing to step up and step in.
The Boston-based GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) stated:
It is disappointing to see the board make the choice to close down Boston Pride rather than work with BIPOC transgender community leaders, former Pride volunteers, and others to make room for new leadership and needed transformation within the organization. We call on the Boston Pride board to be transparent in their plans for dissolving the organization and hope they will do so in a way that benefits the community and lays the groundwork for something new to flourish. (Read GLAD’s full statement here.)
And from MassEquality:
MassEquality, is dismayed to hear that Boston Pride has decided to dismantle its organization rather than transition it’s assets and reins to new leadership who were prepared to meet the challenge of hosting an intersectional Pride which would better serve all of the members of our community.
There have been challenges with the existing leadership for quite some time, and we were heartened when they initially agreed to make changes to address the issues that were raised. We were perplexed and dismayed to see that their actions had not matched their words. The community provided a lot of guidance and feedback that sadly did not result in meaningful change, instead it resulted in the loss of an organization with a fifty year history in our city. (Read MassEquality’s full statement here.)
The announcement on Boston Pride’s Facebook page is receiving hundreds of comments that reveal a very broad and conflicting range of perspectives and ideas about what the dissolution of this organization means to the LGBTQ community of Greater Boston and to everyone who’s contributed to Pride over the years. Thousands of similar comments are showing up across social media platforms and in newspapers and websites across the country.
And more perspectives, statements and calls for action are coming from other leading groups around the Boston and New England area and beyond.
We join the calls for Boston Pride board to keep our community informed on their plans moving forward around the considerable community resource still in their stewardship, as we look to groups like Pride for the People – Boston, and Trans Resistance MA, two of the leading groups that called for the boycott of Boston Pride until the Pride board resigned, to see their response and emerging plans.
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