A New Beginning

As we ready ourselves for Boston Pride 2015, many in our community are anxiously awaiting the ruling of the Supreme Court on the most recent slew of cases concerning same-sex marriage. Whatever the decision, Pride Month will provide a context for celebration or demonstration.

Marriage equality has preoccupied a great number of LGBT people for well over a decade. While we certainly have much cause to celebrate our progress and increasing momentum in this domain of civil rights, there remains much work to be done on an array of critical issues. Accordingly, we at Boston Pride have dedicated a substantial portion of this year’s Pride Guide to highlighting such issues: the rising epidemics of queer youth homelessness and violence against gender-nonconforming individuals and trans people of color, transgender health, HIV prevention and pre-exposure prophylaxis, seeking asylum as an LGBT person, and ending so-called conversion or reparative therapy. With these stories, we seek to inform and to inspire action.

From the beginning, we’ve striven to produce a Pride Guide that reflects the great diversity of the Boston-area LGBT community. Such requires that space be made for a plurality of voices. To that end, we sent an open invitation to community members to contribute stories of significance to them. And a wide range of people, from varying backgrounds, answered our call. We thank them for donating their time, passions, and talents to the Guide. The result of this collaboration – a magazine written by and for our community – is one that we’re #wickedproud to present to you.

Several contributors offer personal perspectives on Pride and the LGBT rights movement, from youth and senior reflections to critical discussions of the relationship between Pride and queer communities of color. As its punning title suggests, our “Out Looks” photo shoot provided another medium for local LGBTs and their children to express themselves, in proudly sharing their individual looks and outlooks. We hope that these perspectives encourage members of our community to talk to one another and to tell their own stories.

We’ve also included a number of artistic and cultural pieces for your interest and enjoyment. Whether it’s curling up to our queer youth short story or one of the Boston Public Library librarians’ recommended LGBT-themed books, dancing to the hottest remixes of Pride season, learning more about local trans theatre, cooking dishes by local gay and lesbian celebrity chefs, or retracing the LGBT community’s own Freedom Trail, readers are bound to find something that appeals to them.

Given the commemorative theme of this year’s Pride, the Guide would not have been complete without a historical overview of Boston Pride’s 45 years, from its birth amidst the Vietnam War protests to the present. The History Project, custodians of our community’s history, courageously took on this task. Their year-by-year chronicle allows readers to grasp some of the important issues and happenings at a given Pride as well as to retrace Pride’s general development over the decades.

And, of course, in the following pages you’ll find a wealth of information about our exciting slate of Boston Pride Week events!

Finally, I should like to convey our appreciation to the over 65 advertisers and sponsors, whose tremendous support and confidence helped make this publication a reality.

Each year we remind ourselves that no matter how old Boston Pride becomes, it’s always someone’s first Pride. And even for a 45- year-old institution like Boston Pride, there’s always room for new traditions. We hope that this magazine, the first Boston Pride Guide ever to be produced in house, is one of these.

Happy Reading and Happy Pride!

Michael Anthony Fowler Editor-in-Chief