But they were incensed last summer when the issue of police abuse was blazing again, and their leaders issued a statement they regarded as tepid. Activists have long complained that Pride has strayed from its renegade roots to become a commercial, family-friendly, civic celebration. The parade was originally inspired by the uprising at the Stonewall Inn in New York, where Black drag queens were among those who led the protest against harassment by police. The schism, years in the making, tore open in the 50th anniversary year of Boston Pride, which celebrates LGBTQ identities and has become the largest annual public parade in New England. “If there were some changes made so that there’s some actual democratic structural changes that can involve the input of the community, I think that would be vital,” she added. “I sadly hoped that I could be the change from within,” said Casey Dooley, the volunteer who chaired Black Pride for the group before quitting last summer. Yet that’s exactly what the activists demanded, saying DeMarco and her fellow board members control all decision making and have been dismissing activists’ input and giving lip service to inclusion for years.Īnd some Black volunteers said they are no longer willing to work with the same entrenched leaders, who don’t seem willing to share power, or even move forward by having difficult conversations about systemic racism. “We just can’t all resign, and not move forward.” We need to keep the organization moving,” DeMarco said. Linda DeMarco, president of the Boston Pride board, insists change is on the way. You can’t do that with the same board that was there before.” “It has to be gutted out, cleaned, and restarted. 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. “People think if we expand or we change, everything should be fine.
Currently, there are no Black board members.
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.