The largest Pride parade in New England returned to Boston on Saturday after a three-year hiatus with a new focus on social justice.
Protesters cheered, danced and held signs representing various causes during the two-hour event. Some participants remembered transgender people who have died in the United States due to prejudice or hate.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, one of the country’s first two openly lesbian governors, said before the parade that she was excited to participate.
“This is a particularly special march this year and right now, where we see states and some governors going backwards, taking away equality, taking away liberties, demonizing members of the LGBTQ community, hurting them, banning books, banning shows, banning access even to medical care,” Healey said.
The parade’s return came amid growing hostility toward LGBTQ people in the country. Some states have shows drag restricted, gender-affirming healthcare, and school library books that have been banned for their LGBTQ content.
Although the Boston parade took place on the second weekend of Pride Month, many other large cities, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, and Minneapolis, hold their main marches on the last weekend of June. Some organize their events throughout the month or even at other times of the year. In Europe, Rome and Athens also held gay pride parades on Saturday, as did Indianapolis; Albuquerque, New Mexico and several other American cities.
In Washington, President Joe Biden welcomed hundreds of people to the White House for a Pride celebration initially scheduled for Thursday but postponed due to poor air quality caused by Canadian wildfires.
“Today I want to send a message to the entire community, especially transgender children: they are loved. you are heard. You belong,” Biden said.
Saturday was the first Boston Pride parade since 2019. The hiatus began with COVID-19 but was extended until 2022 because the organization that used to host the event, Boston Pride, dissolved in 2021.
Despite being the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, Massachusetts is not immune from attacks against LGBTQ people, according to Janson Wu, executive director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu welcomed the return of the parade, saying it was important for Massachusetts and Boston to be “a bulwark on the front lines at a time of growing hatred.”
Associated Press/OnCuba.
