News :: GLBT
Flag raising kicks off Boston Pride Week by Laura Kiritsy
Editor-in-chiefFriday Jun 5, 2009 A crowd of nearly 300, including a host of elected officials and political candidates, turned out to celebrate the raising of the rainbow Pride flag on Boston City Hall Plaza at mid-day today, marking the start of Boston Pride Week.
"Today marks the start of what promises to an amazing week of Pride celebrations throughout the city of Boston," said Steve Gilman, the city’s director of Boston Main Streets in the Department of Neighborhood Development, who represented Mayor Thomas Menino, who does not usually attend the ceremony, at the event. Gilman, one of many openly gay current and former city staffers who attended the lunch time event, later read a proclamation from the mayor declaring June 5 - 14 Boston LGBT Pride Week.
After thanking the mayor for supporting the Boston Pride Committee’s work, Keri Aulita, vice president of the committee’s board of directors, noted that this year marks the first time in eight years that a president has declared June national LGBT Pride Month, a reference to the proclamation issued by President Barack Obama on June 1.
"He made things right again," said Aulita to applause.
"That’s a really good start," she added. "Now we’re going to wait for him to act on our behalf in repealing the ’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy and all the things that he promised us to make this country our country, too."
With the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in New York City on June 28, Aulita asked that LGBT people "take a moment to remember the trailblazers who came before us, who gave us all of the freedoms that we enjoy today especially here in New England, in the Northeast. They’re our brave soldiers of freedom and liberty and we owe them our lives."
But there are many more battles to be fought, said Aulita, including the passage of H.B. 1728, the transgender civil rights bill, which will have a public hearing on Beacon Hill in July.
"We must work together to ensure that all members of our community regardless of gender identity, gender expression, race, color creed ethnicity - whatever - whoever we are that we have protection under the law. That we’re not denied basic civil and human rights because of who we are."
Noting that the local LGBT community spoke volumes about its support for transgender people by voting to make "Transforming Our Communities" this year’s Boston Pride theme, Aulita said, "It’s about time that we stand up and stand behind our trans families our transgender allies and friends and colleagues and coworkers and neighbors."
City Council President Michael Ross used the opportunity of this year’s Boston Pride theme to note that the council in 2002 passed "sweeping legislation" giving rights to transgender people, a reference to the passage of an ordinance adding gender identity and expression to the city’s non-discrimination laws. "
"It’s been the city council and our mayor that’s consistently stood up for the right issue all of the time," Ross, told the crowd. "Boston is a place that welcomes all communities and Boston is certainly a place that welcomes the GLBT community."
Other councilors who joined Ross at the flag-raising were District 1 City Councilor Sal LaMattina, District 2 Councilor Bill Linehan, District 3 Councilor Maureen Feeney, District 5 Councilor Rob Consalvo, District 6 Councilor John Tobin, and At-Large Councilors John Connolly, Michael Flaherty and Sam Yoon. Flaherty and Yoon are also mayoral candidates.
Many of the councilors filtered into the crowd after the ceremony, mingling with constituents and posing for pictures.
"I thought this was the biggest crowd we’d ever had out here," Feeney told Bay Windows as she moved through the crowd. "It’s just such a great time because we step back and we think about what a great city we live in and the contributions that the GLBT community has made to Boston in making it a great city. They’re tremendous leaders," said the Dorchester pol.
The only councilors not in attendance were At-Large Councilor Steve Murphy, District 4 Councilor Charles Yancey, District 7 Councilor Chuck Turner and District 9 Councilor Mark Ciommo.
Despite the fact that it’s a municipal election year in Boston, the event turned out just two City Council candidates: at-large contenders Doug Bennett of the North End and Tomas Gonzalez of Hyde Park who are running in a crowded field of 15 candidates (including incumbents Connolly and Murphy) for the four at-large council seats.
"I believe everyone deserves freedom and I support equal rights, so that’s why I’m here," said Bennett, a Nantucket transplant whose position on marriage equality was somewhat nuanced when he ran for the state Senate on the Republican ticket against Cape & Islands state Sen. Robert O’Leary in 2006.
Bennett said he later came out in favor of marriage equality in that campaign.
"I went against the grain of my [political] party," he said. "I support equal rights. I don’t care who you are. No matter whether it’s race, religion, whether it’s gender, whether it’s your sexual preference, everyone deserves equality in the United States of American and that’s why I’m here."
Gonzalez, a former aide to Menino, noted that his large family includes his gay sister and three gay uncles. His sister, he added, is shy and not very open about being gay, though Gonzalez said he has encouraged her to get involved with the Boston Pride Committee. "If I don’t care for her, I don’t care for anybody," he said. "I’m here because I care about the [LGBT] community, just like I care about my own community. At the end of the day that’s all that matters."
Third Suffolk District legislative candidates Aaron Michlewitz and John Keith, who are competing in a June 16 special election to succeed former House Speaker Sal DiMasi, a longtime champion of LGBT rights who was indicted on corruption charges on June 2, were also among those in the crowd.
|
|
|
Email
Print
Share
