The biggest Pride parade in New England returned to Boston this weekend after a three-year hiatus, with a fresh focus on social justice and inclusion rather than corporate backing.
Roughly 1 million people were expected to attend Boston Pride for the People's inaugural parade, festival and more on Saturday, and the sun popped out just as the parade got going.
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Marchers cheered, danced and held signs representing various causes during the two-hour event, while people along the sidelines cheered back. About 10,000 marchers signed up before registration was shut down, according to organizers.
Elected officials like Ayanna Pressley and Ed Markey were among those taking to Boston's streets to celebrate.
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"You can feel how happy people are to have the parade again. We're back! It's bigger! It's better than ever and we are Boston," Markey said. "We're special. We're the first state with same sex marriage legalized. But we have a lot of work to do."
Watch the full parade kickoff show in the video below:
Mason Dunn, 37, of Tewksbury, Massachusetts, said the crowd was diverse: “All different gender identities, all different race, ethnicity, age, ability. We’re seeing a really great representation."
Some participants memorialized transgender people who died because of bias or hate in the U.S. by carrying signs with one of their names in the parade, Dunn said.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, one of the nation’s first two openly lesbian governors, said ahead of the parade that she was excited to participate.
“This is a particularly special one to be marching in this year and at this time where we see states and some governors going backward, taking away equality, taking away freedoms, demonizing members of the LGBTQ community, hurting them, banning books, banning shows, banning access to even health care,” Healey said.
Marching through the South End, Healey told NBC10 Boston that inclusivity and belonging are top priorities.
"Happy pride! I love pride, I love the parade. It's great to be here with the lieutenant governor. I think we both want everybody in Massachusetts to know that our LGBTQ+ community, you are safe, you are protected, we will always fight for equality and civil rights," she said. "It's a day of joy and celebration."
The parade's return came amid growing hostility to LGBTQ+ people in parts of the country. Some states have limited drag shows, restricted gender-affirming medical care and banned school library books for their LGBTQ+ content.
Though Boston's parade happened 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 cities host their events throughout the month or even at other times of the year. In Europe, Rome and Athens also held pride parades Saturday, as did Indianapolis; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and several other U.S. and global cities.
In Washington, President Joe Biden welcomed hundreds to the White House for a Pride celebration that had initially been scheduled for Thursday but was postponed because of poor air quality caused by Canadian wildfires.
“So today, I want to send a message to the entire community — especially to transgender children: You are loved. You are heard. You belong,” Biden said.
Saturday was Boston’s first Pride parade since 2019. The hiatus began with COVID-19 but extended through 2022 because the organization that used to run the event, Boston Pride, dissolved in 2021 under criticism that it excluded racial minorities and transgender people.
PHOTOS: Boston Pride for the People parade
Boston Pride for the People, the new group formed to plan Boston’s parade, came together last September to create a more inclusive, less corporate festival, said Jo Trigilio, vice president of Boston Pride for the People.
Despite being the first state to legalize same-sex marriage, Massachusetts isn’t immune to attacks on LGBTQ+ people, according to Janson Wu, executive director of GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, or GLAD.
He pointed to protests targeting drag shows and harassment against children’s hospitals and physicians that provide gender-affirming health care.
“The return of Boston Pride with new and grassroots leadership is incredibly important, especially now with rising attacks against the LGBTQ community,” Wu said.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat, welcomed the parade's return, saying it's important for Massachusetts and Boston to be "a bulwark on the frontlines in a moment of rising hate.”
Neon Calypso, 30, a Boston drag queen and trans woman of color who performed Tina Turner's “Proud Mary” at a Statehouse raising of the Pride flag Wednesday, said she’s baffled by those trying to marginalize drag performers.
“It’s unfortunate that there are states and politicians that people empower that see something that’s so welcoming and accepting as something that’s negative,” she said. “A lot of those people who are protesting the shows, if they went, they would actually see that it’s not what they say.”
One of the oldest Pride events in the country, this year’s parade traveled a bit shorter route than in past years, beginning at Copley Square and ending at Boston Common with a festival for families, teens and older community members. A second event for the over-21 crowd was planned at City Hall Plaza with alcohol, a disc jockey and dancing.
Boston Pride for the People focuses on empowerment, celebration, commemoration and education, and seeks to counter Pride parades and celebrations nationwide that have become too commercial and too focused on appealing to people with privilege, said Trigilio, who uses the pronouns they and them.
“The more you have corporations involved, the more they are looking for money and that caters to the privileged,” they added. “When you have a Pride that is too commercial, it becomes a party and you lose the social justice aspect to it.”
They said Boston Pride for the People reviewed corporate funders using a number of criteria, including whether they donated to anti-LGBTQ+ lawmakers.
Employee groups were welcome to march, but corporations weren't.
“We really did start by looking forward to how we could best serve the LGBTQ community in greater Boston and really all across New England,” Trigilio said.
Here's the full calendar of Boston Pride for the People events.
Parade route:
- Parade begins on Boylston Street
- Turn right onto Clarendon Street. March past St. James, Stuart, Columbus Avenue, Appleton, Warren.
- Turn left onto Tremont Street. March past Waltham, Hanson, Milford, Dwight.
- Turn left onto Berkeley Street. March past Warren, Appleton, Columbus Avenue, Stuart, St. James.
- Turn right onto Boylston. March past Arlington.
- Turn left onto Charles Street. March past Public Garden on left, Boston Common on right.
- Turn right onto Beacon Street. March uphill. Parade disassembles as it proceeds up Beacon to the corner of Beacon and Park Street.
The event also featured two different festivals happening at the same time. The festival for all ages was to happen on the Boston Common, and the one that is only for those over 21 was slated for Boston's City Hall Plaza.
Organizers encouraged everyone to take public transportation if possible. Given the recent attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, plenty of security was on hand.
The Boston stations of NBC & Telemundo are the proud media partner of the event.
