Sarah Binney, director of operations for Cambridge’s LGBTQ+ Commission, said this year’s celebration has been “amazing.” It is the first year the city has held its celebration outdoors, rather than inside City Hall, Binney said. She described the event as not just a celebration, but a chance to show support amid increasing hostility and discrimination against LGBTQ people under the Trump administration. In Cambridge, hundreds of revelers gathered outside City Hall at the city’s Pride festival on Sunday.
Families with children lined up for face painting and friends spread blankets on the City Hall lawn, eating ice cream and listening to slinky jazz performed by Springfield native Richard Parris Scott on a stage wreathed with rainbow balloons. Members of the gay, lesbian and transgender communities gathered across Massachusetts this weekend to celebrate Pride amid nationwide conservative backlash to LGBTQ rights. “It’s really important for us to come together and to both celebrate and also stand firm in our commitment to our community members,” Binney said.
Advertisement As Pride Month continues throughout June, the annual celebrations have developed a sense of political urgency. In Washington, D.C., thousands gathered under grey skies Sunday morning at the Lincoln Memorial for a Pride rally and protest march. During President Trump’s 2024 campaign, he called on Congress to pass a bill declaring there are “only two genders,” and in January he signed executive orders opposing hormonal and surgical intervention for transgender minors and purging references to gender identity from federal websites.
Republican lawmakers in states across the country have also introduced measures calling on the Supreme Court to reverse its 2015 ruling that established same-sex marriage as a constitutional right. Advertisement “This is not just a party,” Ashley Smith, board president of Capital Pride Alliance. “This is a rally for our lives.” At the Cambridge Pride event, Robert Ressler, a 36-year-old youth and family policy researcher from Cambridge, said Pride serves a number of valuable functions for the queer community: a sense of togetherness, an opportunity for resistance and a feeling of normalcy during difficult times.
“It does feel, unfortunately, that it seems people against the queer community are especially powerful right now,” Ressler said. “But I’m optimistic that won’t be forever.” At Quincy Pride, drag queen and drag show host LaKia Mondale floated onstage to a news sound byte announcing President Donald Trump’s January executive order recognizing only two sexes. Abruptly, the audio switched to the opening strains of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Am What I Am” and Mondale began her routine, shimmying her hips back and forth and shedding her cape when the beat dropped to reveal a rainbow-striped unitard.
Earlier in the show, Mondale had said “We’re not going to get into politics today, let’s leave that to D.C.” But before leaving the stage after the closing performance, she made sure to plug the Transgender Emergency Fund of Massachusetts, a nonprofit supporting low-income and unhoused transgender people for which Mondale serves as a board member. Despite Mondale alluding to the growing threats to the transgender community under Trump several times throughout her performance, the mood at Quincy was festive, with hundreds of colorfully clad visitors of all ages gathering on Pageant Field. Rainbow balloons abounded, pride goers nodded along to upbeat music, and rows of vendors hawking pride-themed merchandise and food.
Excited children flocked to the field’s inflatable bounce houses, clutching balloon animals and miniature pride flags. Advertisement For Cat Giacalone, 26, the event was both a celebration and a protest. She said that the recent increase in anti-LGBT legislation has made her feel like Pride is more important — and more courageous — than ever.
“This year, it’s all about protest, it’s about being here and letting people know that we’re not going away,” she said. “It’s terrifying. I know I’m safe in Massachusetts, but I’m afraid for my friends in other places.” Erika Barresi, 29, came to Quincy Pride to have fun and “be with people from my community,” but she also felt the weight of what pride means in light of the new administration.
“I’m afraid of us losing trans rights, marriage equality, equality in general,” she confessed. “That makes celebrating Pride this year even more important. In this community, anyone can be who they want.” This story includes material from the Associated Press.
Dan Glaun can be reached at dan.glaun@globe.com. Follow him @dglaun.
