Boston Pride is accepting Marshal Nominations for this year’s Pride Parade and Festival, which will be held Saturday, June 9th. Each year, our organization asks the community to nominate three different types of Pride Marshals: Grand Marshal, Honorary Marshal (a title only given posthumously) and Celebrity Marshals. This year our goal is to select Marshals who have a connection to the theme of “Celebrating 30 Years of Worldwide Pride Movementâ€. Just like every year, we will be using our multi-step nomination process; first asking for nominee submissions from the community, and then selecting a range of nominees from those responses. We will then re-release the narrowed-down lists and let you determine the 2012 Pride Marshals through one last vote. Due to popular demand, we have extended the Pride Marshal submission period until March 23rd. For additional information on Pride Marshals or to participate in the voting process, please visit our website at https://www.bostonpride.org/marshals/. Keep the great suggestions coming!
Marshal nominations now open – until March 23
About the Author: Boston Pride
I would like to nominate myself, if possible, for one of the Grand Marshall positions. Being transgendered can be seen as a curse, but I have always considered it to be a blessing. I have always believed into turning a negative into a positive, not that I consider being transgendered as a negative, but I choose to overcome an obstacle rather than wallow in self pity and fear might might happen. I choose to move forward, and in doing so, I have become somewhat well-known in the New England area [and points beyond] by both the GLBT Community as well as the mainstream society…a feat that many saw as impossible.
I do what I do because I believe in myself and my abilities as a person, and I love knowing that my confidence and feelings of self worth serve as an inspiration for others to follow. I like to look at any given situation from all sides of the spectrum, not just that of a transgendered person, but all people, and because I understand this, I have made many friends and have been widely accepted and embraced in mainstream society.
I am currently the founder and one of the Moderators for Sisters Family, a local trans-organization that I founded in 2007 and is now 4 active chapters in 2 New England states. What makes us different from other organizations is that we operate on zero dollars from the government and all of our chapters meet in public locations, where our goal is to help new Family Members to embrace their confidence in who they are and defeat the fear that holds them back. Sisters Family recently celebrated their 5th year anniversary and is still going strong, thanks to my other Moderators, our location owners, and those Family Members who believe in what we are doing.
I have taken on an active role in the entertainment industry, being in independent films, one major motion picture as a background extra, in television, both runway and photo modeling, and I am currently the star of 2 local cable shows in Massachusetts and server as a radio personality as co-host of my own weekly radio show which can be heard each and every Sunday on Unregularradio.com at 2PM est.
I am also an activist, fighting against 2 local restaurants that discriminated against transgendered people. A lot of people in our own community told me not to expose myself and fight, but rather to just ignore the situations unfolding. I refused that advice and took on both restaurants head-on, winning both cases. One case in particular even made it to the media circuit and I was interviewed on both radio and television, even being asked many times to be a guest on Dan Rea’s Nightside and Keller at Large, both at WBZ Studios. I was also the keynote speaker at NOHO Trans-Pride 2012.
Most recently I spearheaded a fund raiser for Shriners Hospital, raising $700 in 2 years. Shriners has open their doors and their hearts to us at Sisters Family and knowing that we are contributing to our future, our children, while at the same time bridging our community with the mainstream, makes all of the effort worthwhile.
I am hoping that by being Grand Marshall of this year’s Boston Pride that I can not only send a message of hope, but show through living example that if we truly believe in who we are as people, no matter what a law may say, that we can move forward with pride and know that we can succeed in whatever we wish to do.
I am hoping that this letter reaches you and that you will consider my application.
Thank you.
Ashley Amber Bottoms
Saugus, MA.
LINK:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sisters_of_boston/
LINK:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ashley-Amber-Bottoms/166731053381979
LINK:
http://www.unregularradio.com/all-unregular-show/item/83-anthony-duva-show
I’d like to nominate Woody Baldwin for a grand marshal position in this year’s Gay Pride Parade in Boston. He is the founder of the Prime Timers World Wide organization that has 79 chapters in the world and over 8,000 members. This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the group founded in August of 1987. See http://www.primetimersww.org for full details of the group’s work. I can think of few other men who have had greater impact for good as this man has done for us.
I would like to nominate Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition for Grand Marshall at Pride.
Thank you,
Sarah
Hi- in order to submit a nomination, you must fill out the form that is available on our Marshals page at https://www.bostonpride.org/marshals. We cannot accept nominations posted as comments. Thank you.
Sylvain, for Boston Pride