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REASONS TO BOYCOTT

1

PERSISTENT FAILURE TO ADDRESS STRUCTURAL RACISM

Year after year, the current board has failed to prioritize issues of race, racism, and white privilege.

  • The Boston Pride board has had a long history of poor relationships with Greater Boston’s communities of Queer & Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (QTBIPOC).  This structural exclusion has forced QTBIPOC communities to organize their own Pride events through the decades.  

  • For decades the board has failed to recruit and retain a racially diverse volunteer workforce. The lack of diversity throughout the Pride organization indicates that the inability of Boston Pride to address issues of racism and white privilege continues to be systemic.

2

CONTINUED FAILURE TO ADDRESS 6 DEMANDS MADE BY BLM IN 2015

Black Lives Matter made 6 demands at the beginning of the Pride Parade in 2015 and they were met with silence by the Pride board.  Five years later, the BLM demands remain ignored and the Boston Pride board continues to refuse to engage in interactive dialogues with QTBIPOC communities.  

3

VOTED TO NOT SUPPORT #BLACKLIVESMATTER IN MAY 2020

Black Lives Matter made 6 demands at the beginning of the Pride Parade in 2015 and they were met with silence by the Pride board.  Five years later, the BLM demands remain ignored and the Boston Pride board continues to refuse to engage in interactive dialogues with QTBIPOC communities.  

4

80% OF THE PRIDE VOLUNTEER WORKFORCE RESIGNED

Refusing to support BLM was the last straw. 80% of the volunteer workforce, including the Chair of Black and Latinx Pride and the communications team, resigned as a show of “no confidence” in the current board’s leadership.

5

BOSTON PRIDE’S FAUX “TRANSFORMATION” PLAN IS BUSINESS AS USUAL

Boston Pride Board’s proposed “transformation” process is a fancy performance designed to protect the absolute and exclusive power of the current board. It includes no structural change: 

  • No change to bylaws which give the Board exclusive power 

  • No formalized power sharing with the Volunteer Workforce which does most of the work 

  • No formalized power sharing with community voices 

  • Current board still maintains the majority vote 

  • No plans for the resignation of Board members who have been on the Board for more than ten years. 

© 2021 by Pride 4 the People

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