Boston Pride is moving the date of the Boston Mayoral Candidates Forum from June 7th to June 14th out of respect to the groups (TransResistanceMA, Transgender Emergency Fund, MassTPC and Mass NOW) that scheduled a candidates’ forum on June 7th at 7pm.  The issues facing the LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities are critical to moving the City of Boston forward and by having our Boston Mayoral Candidates Forum at another time, we are giving more space for the candidates to discuss these issues.

We have been working since last year to take responsibility and change the systemic and structural racism affecting our organization. We have embarked on an inclusive and deliberative transformation process that is relying on members of the community who are not affiliated with Boston Pride to help us change.

As part of the deliberative process, we have reached out to our community and opened opportunities to help with this transformation.  We have created a Transformation Advisory Committee (TAC) made up of community members who are empowered to oversee the onboarding process of new Board members. The TAC is authorized to name new board members to achieve more diversity reflecting our community.  We anticipate having  new leadership on board within the coming months.

Boston Pride takes seriously our responsibilities to be good stewards of the legacy that has been left to us from previous generations while also nurturing the need for new leadership and addressing our organizational shortcomings. We will continue to pursue this transformational process because we know it is the best way to ensure that Boston Pride can best serve all of the members of our community, including those who are BIPOC and trans.

We know that there are battles to be fought in support of the marginalized groups in our community who continue to be affected by blatant discrimination and violence. This is why we are also fighting to transform Boston Pride to be an organization that is in alignment with all of the members of our LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities.

We want to work together with all members of our community to build a better Pride and to empower the next generation of leaders.