Boston Pride For The People (BP4TP) today announced the return of a Pride Month celebration in Boston. The celebration will be held in June 2023, and will include a parade, a festival, block parties and more. The parade and festival will take place on Saturday, June 10, on Boston Common and at City Hall Plaza. Other activities will be held in the preceding week and throughout the month.
BP4TP is a new organization formed to reimagine the annual celebration that hasn’t been held in person since 2019.
“Thank you so much to the organizers who have been working to build and ground the evolution of Pride in community,” said Mayor Michelle Wu. “Boston has a long history of advancing LGBTQ+ equality, and I’m so grateful to Boston Pride for the People to keep this legacy going and ensure the success of this year’s events. I look forward to welcoming people from all across New England to Boston this June!”
The newly formed group worked over the past year to ensure that input on the Pride events included a broad chorus of voices. “We want to produce a Pride celebration that centers the rich diversity, culture, and intersectionality of our city’s LGBTQ+ community,” noted Jo Trigilio, BP4TP board member and an LGBTQ+ grassroots activist who helped organize the Boston Dyke March for 14 years. “To do that, we need to be intentional about ensuring that people who are often marginalized feel welcome and valued.”
Boston Pride For The People has established a mission that aims to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ people by emphasizing activities and experiences that EMPOWER, CELEBRATE, EDUCATE, AND COMMEMORATE:
- Empower through creating LGBTQ+ community and respectfully reaching across differences to support and love one another
- Celebrate and honor the rich, diverse, creative, and fabulous culture of LGBTQ+ communities, while imparting knowledge of LGBTQ+ history and a sense of pride among LGBTQ+ youth
- Educate and advocate broadly about oppression that LGBTQ+ people still experience, especially LGBTQ+ people who face multiple forms of oppression
- Commemorate the Stonewall riots and memorialize the queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, and People of color (QTBIPOC) activists at the forefront of the 20th century (LGBTQ+) movement.
To make the multifaceted celebration successful requires substantial volunteer and financial support. Boston Pride for the People welcomes volunteers to join Pride planning committee positions by applying at www.bostonprideforthepeople.org.
“Our intent this year is to center the people of the community, in the parade and at the festival. We are hoping to secure sponsorships to cover the majority of the cost of the events, in order to minimize the cost of registration for community groups and small businesses (particularly LGBTQ+ and Black owned businesses) to participate,” said Gary Daffin, BP4TP Board member and Executive Director of the Multicultural AIDS Coalition. “The goal is $750,000. There are many opportunities for major sponsors and individual donors to support the return of this important event that the whole city looks forward to experiencing.” Those interested in sponsoring Boston Pride for the People, should contact info@bp4tp.org.
—From aBP4TP press release
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