Despite Boston Pride’s recently announced plans to “institute transformational change within our organization regarding diversity, access, inclusion, equity and equality,” the board of Boston Pride is still facing resistance.
Pride 4 the People, a grassroots organization of former Boston Pride volunteers, community leaders and individuals, is calling for a boycott of Boston’s Pride 2021 parade and festival unless the Boston Pride board resigns.
Reports the Boston Globe:
LGBTQ activists who blasted the leaders of Boston Pride for resisting inclusion and failing to embrace the Black Lives Matter movement last summer are calling for a boycott of the city’s largest parade, and planning to stage an alternative event for the second year in a row.
Most of the event’s volunteer workforce resigned last summer after Boston Pride’s board watered down its proposed statement on the racial protests roiling cities nationwide.
Since then, the board has hired a diversity consultant and pledged to appoint a “transformation advisory council” but has rebuffed demands for a complete overhaul of the nine-member board. Instead, the leaders have spoken of adding seats to the board, while letting four seats sit vacant since the summer.
All of that has cemented volunteers’ long-term concerns that Boston Pride does not make space for queer and trans, Black, and indigenous people, and people of color. Currently, there are no Black board members.
“People think if we expand or we change, everything should be fine. Over the years, that is what white individuals have done to people of color,” said Athena Vaughn, who cofounded Trans Resistance when many felt forsaken by Boston Pride in June. “It has to be gutted out, cleaned, and restarted. You can’t do that with the same board that was there before.”
Linda DeMarco, president of the Boston Pride board, insists change is on the way.
“It takes time. It’s an organization. We have fiduciary responsibilities. We need to keep the organization moving,” DeMarco said. “We just can’t all resign, and not move forward.”
Read the entire Boston Globe story here.
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