Boston Pride announced Wednesday that the 39 awardees of the 2020 Boston Pride Community Fund grants have received almost $80,000. The announcement was made virtually on Boston Pride’s YouTube Channel by Community Fund Chair Kristen Porter. In addition, Boston Pride’s YouTube channel is featuring each Community Fund recipient in individual videos.
In support of its mission to promote social justice for the LGBTQ community and beyond, in 2016 Boston Pride established the Community Fund to provide grants to small, grassroots, nonprofit organizations and other groups that support the area’s LGBTQ community. Since then, Boston Pride has awarded approximately $180,000 to a total of 99 local organizations. The fund is supported by contributions fundraised at the Back Bay Block Party, Jamaica Plain Block Party, High Heel Dash and corporate sponsorships. Also, Tito’s Handmade Vodka Philanthropy Fund, Love, Tito’s, donated $10,000 to the Community Fund.
“The Boston Pride Community Fund recognizes the innovative and intersectional work happening at the community-based and grass roots levels,” said Kristen Porter, Boston Pride Community Fund Chair. “By remaining steadfast in our support of these efforts during this pandemic, we embrace what is possible for the future of the LGBTQ community and celebrate the positive impact these grassroots and nonprofit initiatives have.”
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Recipients of the Community Fund Grants perform vital work within the LGBTQ community. For some groups, the grant helps provide the critical resources needed to carry out their missions. For organizations who applied for grants to use for 2020 events that are now cancelled or postponed due to the public health state of emergency, Boston Pride has revised the terms of the award, allowing the organizations to use the funds in whatever manner they determine is best for them and the people whom they serve.
“As an organization, we have worked hard to help strengthen grassroots organizations that help serve our community. They are important now more than ever before, as we are in a public health emergency,” said Linda DeMarco, President of Boston Pride. “These organizations contribute to the fabric of our community and represent the LGBTQ community from neighborhoods in Boston and beyond.”
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The 2020 Boston Pride Community Fund Recipients are:
• 3rdWaVvE – 3rdWaVvE is a QTPOC social enterprise and event series that aims to promulgate the inclusivity and visibility of queer and trans people of color by facilitating a platform of self-expression for performance-based artists, visual artists, as well as other mediums. 3rdWaVve fosters community through monthly memberships, community engagement and providing a safe space for marginalized communities.
• Artists' Theater of Boston – Artists’ Theater of Boston produces low-cost, accessible theater responding to the systematic injustices faced by the communities. The organization encourages collaboration among performing, textual, visual and media artists and aims to both develop new work and to rethink and recreate already influential work.
• Arts Connect International – ACI partners with emerging artist leaders of color and arts influencers who hold institutional power in the contemporary world, to collectively build equity, access and inclusion through transformational leadership development.
• Bisexual Resource Center – The Bisexual Resource Center envisions a world where love is celebrated, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression. Because bisexuals today are still misunderstood, marginalized and discriminated against, the BRC is committed to providing support to the bisexual community and raising public awareness about bisexuality and bisexual people.
• The Boston Dyke March Committee – The Boston Dyke March is a 24-year-old tradition that draws over 2,000 people each year, and the attendance continues to grow. Since 1995, the March has remained committed to offering a non-commercial, intersectional and fundamentally grassroots supplement to Boston’s Pride celebration. The goal is to elevate voices marginalized within the LGBTQIA+ community. Everyone is welcome to participate in creating an event that expresses the joys and concerns of all members of the community.
• Boston LesBiGay Urban Events – BLUE’s mission is to increase the awareness of black pride within the Boston LGBTQ community, to build self-esteem, to foster healthy relationships and build a stronger network. The goal is to bring men and women of the Boston LGBTQ community together as a unified front and reduce division between genders within the Black and Latino LGBTQ community.
• Camp Lightbulb – Camp Lightbulb creates magical summer experiences for LGBTQ+ youth, ages 14 to 18, and their families, filled with fun, pride, community, friends, support, self-discovery and memories to last a lifetime.
• Coro Allegro of Boston – Coro Allegro is proud to be Boston’s LGBTQ+ and allied classical chorus, dedicated to the performance of significant choral works for the enjoyment of all.
• Dancing Queerly – Dancing Queerly is an annual dance festival featuring workshops, mixers, panel discussions, and performances by and for the LGBTQIA+ community, friends and allies. Understanding that people approach dance for a variety of reasons and with different intentions, Dancing Queerly provides queer-centric dance events for students, professionals, audience members and enthusiasts.
• DespeloteX – DespeloteX strives to make Afro-Latin dance more LGBTQ inclusive and nurture supportive social spaces for the queer community.
• Dr. Feel Good Yoga Play Day – Offers Queer affirming POC-led POC-centered underground yoga to QPOC and their allies in communities of color.
• Dracut Pride Committee – Dracut Pride was formed to support the LGBTQA+ individuals in our community by promoting fellowship of safety, belonging and pride. We celebrate diversity and look to sponsor events and activities to achieve inclusivity, equality, respect and awareness of LGBTQA+ individuals, families, friends and allies in the community.
• Drag Boston – Drag Boston was started in 2018 to create and cultivate a drag king and nonbinary performer community. Through education and mentorship, advocacy and visibility, promotion and participation, Drag Boston seeks to elevate the art of kinging as celebrated queer culture.
• Flavors of your Palate, LLC – Flavors of your Palate, LLC educated folks from all walks of life on the value of the LGBTQ+ community, specifically the POC community.
• Helping Our Women – Helping Our Women educated, empowers and supports women in the towns of Eastham, Wellfleet, Truro and Provincetown who are living with chronic, disabling or life-threatening health conditions.
• If you can Feel it, you can Speak it. Open Mic Movement – The “If you can Feel it, you can Speak it” Open Mic is dedicated to elevating voices for LGBTQ+ communities and artists of color.
• IMPACT, Inc. / Triangle, Inc. – IMPACT works to prevent violence and abuse by giving people the skills to protect their safety and advocate for healthy relationship and sexual respect in their communities and society.
• Improbable Players, Inc. – To set the stage for prevention by educating the public about addiction recovery through dramatic performances and theater workshops, presented by actors who are in long-term recovery from addictions, that help people recognize situations in their own lives and seek the help they need.
• Lesbians of Color Symposium Collective, Inc. – LOCS Collective’s purpose is to address the gross disparities that exist regarding access to community and resources for LBTQI+ women, non-binary people of color. Concurrently, there are few organizations dedicated to providing services to the demographic. The vision is to create sustainable spaces and platforms to celebrate the vibrant culture, solidify and strengthen the community and increase visibility.
• Lexington Pride Coalition (LexPride) – LexPride’s mission is to develop community and advance full equality for LGBTQIA+ people and their families and allies in Lexington, MA. LGBTQIA+ identities span all demographics, such as race/ethnicity, faith, abilities, gender, socioeconomic status, etc.
• LGBT Elders of Color – The mission of LGBT Elders of Color is to conduct outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender older adults of color for the purpose of building community through social engagement events, creative programming and providing needed resources for health care and aging services.
• LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc. – That stated mission of LGBTQ Senior Housing Inc. is to facilitate access to safe, welcoming and affordable housing for low-income, LGBTQ seniors, including through a formal role in the development of such housing; to define onsite housing services and programming that addresses the needs of LGBTQ seniors; and to support community space to serve seniors in the Greater Boston Community.
• Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition – Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition is dedicated to preventing environmental causes of breast cancer through community education, research advocacy and changes to public policy.
• Men of Melanin Magic – Men of Melanin Magic is an organization that produces exciting events and engaging opportunities for queer and trans people of color, with a focus on queer and trans men of color, in the Boston area.
• New England Kiki Ball Scene - the New England Kiki Ball Scene creates safe and brave spaces for LGBTQIA+ Youth of color and their allies in the Greater Boston area to express themselves artistically through healthy competition while learning leadership, marketing, event planning and community mobilization skills.
• North Shore Alliance of GLBTQ Youth (NAGLY) – NAGLY honors, teaches, respects and empowers LGBTQ youth.
• North Shore Pride, Inc. – The mission of North Shore Pride, Inc is to promote the general welfare and unity of the LGBTQ community within the North Shore, and to advocate for the acceptance of members of the LGBTQ community by the broader North Shore Community.
• OUT MetroWest – OUT MetroWest builds communities where LGBTQ+ youth thrive.
• Plymouth Pride, Inc. – Plymouth Pride is excited to celebrate the diversity and unity within the community. Promoting equality and inclusivity through the events and volunteering, while fostering education, awareness, respect and visibility for everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as the partners, friends and families.
• Quincy Pride – Quincy Pride is a volunteer community organization that promotes LGBTQ+ inclusivity, equality, education and respect in Quincy, MA. An independent voice, Quincy Pride works collaboratively with the City of Quincy, local business and other nonprofit organizations to advocate on behalf of LGBTQ issues and concerns and hold community events to further its mission.
• Queens with a Mission (QWAM) – Established in 2016, QWAM champions for self-confidence, especially for those who identify as part of the Boston LGBTQA+ community and Boston Dance Scene. As a diverse male dance crew, QWAM is a family who wants to express and experience dance in all aspects: masculinity, femininity and reality.
• SpeakOUT Boston – SpeakOUT is a community of speakers working to create a world free of homo-bi-trans-phobia and other forms of prejudice by telling the truths of our lives.
• Swingtime Boston – Swingtime brings together queer and trans folks and our allies for dancing to swing, salsa, ballroom and country music. Swingtime creates a super-friendly, unpretentious, laid-back dance atmosphere where not partner of dance experience is needed to join.
• Trans Club of New England (TCNE) – First Event is the longest running transgender peer support conference in the US. Its mission is to create an affordable, valuable and welcoming environment for the trans and gender non-conforming community to collaborate. The conference promotes support services like counseling, medical, insurance, finances, spousal/family issues, career assistance and all other life complicating concerns that are central to the needs of most under the trans umbrella.
• The History Project: Documenting LGBTQ Boston – To document and preserve the history of Boston’s gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer communities, and to share that information with LGBTQ individuals, organizations, allies and the public.
• The Theater Offensive – The Theater Offensive’s mission is to present liberating art by, for, and about queer and trans people of color (QTPOC) that transcends artistic boundaries, celebrates cultural abundance and dismantles oppression.
• Transgender Emergency Fund – To help young marginalized LGBTQ People of color, to create a space to be able to express themselves through the art of dance called Vouge/Ballroom.
• Woburn Schools Spectrum Club (GSA) – The mission of the Spectrum Club is to empower lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer+ and straight ally youth leaders as they work toward ensuring Woburn Public Schools are accepting, welcoming and safer for students, staff, families and loved ones regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity through education, support, social action and advocacy.
• Women in Comedy Festival – In an effort to empower and bring exposure to previously underrepresented voices that are new and distinct, the WICF mission is to celebrate comedy from different perspectives. The goal is to help close the gender gap in comedy by showcasing womxn and their allies across all comedic platforms.
