“It's really important for us to stay noncommercial, because we try to be very focused on the issues and people,” says Amber Clifton, who helps organize Boston Dyke March.
A few, like the upcoming Boston Dyke March on June 10, BASK: An LGBTQ People of Color Pride Picnic on June 18, and the recent Radical Pride Kick-Off Party by Break the Chains on June 3, have made it a point to steer clear of the corporate involvement that has become standard in Pride parades around the country. As a result, numerous alternative pride events have sprung up throughout the month of June.
Many also feel that the event marginalizes the LGBTQ community’s most vulnerable populations by not prioritizing the needs and visibility of LGBTQ people of color and trans individuals. There will be evidence, too, of the event’s numerous corporate sponsors, among them TD Bank, Bud Light and Walmart.įor some LGBTQ Bostonians, the corporate presence at Pride is unwelcome, even unethical. Also in attendance will be lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer (LGBTQ) representatives of businesses large and small, from local banks to Microsoft. Drag queens will march alongside high school students, librarians shoulder-to-shoulder with leather slaves. This Saturday, June 11, downtown Boston will erupt in rainbow splendor as the gay Pride Parade cavorts through its streets. (Greg Cook) This article is more than 5 years old.
