[Boston, MA; February 2021] For 31 years, The Network/La Red (TNLR) has been committed to supporting survivors of partner abuse (domestic violence). This commitment makes us vigilant to what is happening in our communities, and we cannot sit idle while the Boston Pride board continue with their racist, classist, transphobic actions.

For TNLR, it was very important to show up to Boston Pride celebrations because many LGBTQ survivors attend these events, and many of them seek support around their experiences and their safety. However, throughout the years, Boston Pride has shown patterns of disregarding what the community has asked of them and prioritizing keeping their board of directors overwhelmingly white and cisgender.

Boston Pride’s Board of Directors choose time and time again to keep and retain power rather than use that power to serve the communities they claim to represent.

These patterns closely resemble the patterns that abusers exhibit when trying to keep power over survivors. For example, Boston Pride has asked for feedback many times, yet has failed to make changes suggested by community. Asking for feedback to later dismiss it, is gaslighting, as asking for feedback implies that changes will be made. Another example is tokenizing Black and Transgender folks by recruiting them to their board for appearances only, not to listen to their expertise.

The Boston Pride Board’s actions are abusive towards our community and just like most abusers, they use any way out to avoid being held accountable. This most recent effort by the board, hiring a firm to educate them on the ways they uphold oppression, is the last of many attempts to show how much they have changed; however, the board itself has not changed and neither have their actions.

The biggest structural change that has happened within Boston Pride is when 80% of their volunteers quit after the board refused to give the organization to Black Trans leadership.