Select Board OKs ‘pride sidewalk’ Project will put town in company of communities with LGBTQ+ public art

BY WILLIAM J. DOWD

Marblehead is set to join a growing list of Bay State communities that celebrate LGBTQ+ pride with public art.

The Select Board unanimously gave the green light for the Marblehead Cultural Council to paint the progressive pride flag with an assortment of wellknown symbols denoting love, peace and good fortune in the heart of Marblehead. The project should be completed this month and remain year-round.

“It will send a message of acceptance, tolerance and inclusion,” Marblehead-based artist TJ de Blij, commissioned by the MCC for this public art piece, shared with Select Board members. “It’s quite straightforward, sticking to symbols that are commonly used.”

Named “Four Love & Peace Leaf Clover — Intersex Progress Pride,” the public art will be painted on four concrete slabs outside the Marblehead information booth, facing Memorial Park. The slabs are centrally positioned on a newly constructed triangular island situated between Pleasant and

Essex Streets. De Blij’s design features four hearts assembled in a clover-like pattern, signifying love, peace and hope. The background, filled with the emblematic colors of the progressive pride flag, includes the six vibrant rainbow hues symbolizing hope: red for life, orange for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for peace or serenity and purple for spirit.

The design weaves in light blue, pink and white stripes symbolizing the trans community, and black and brown stripes recognizing people of color. Additionally, the intersexinclusive progress pride flag is represented through a yellow triangle enclosing a purple circle, illustrating unity and completeness for the intersex community.

“It’s really been a fantastic experience for the Marblehead Cultural Council to take on this project. From the very beginning, we knew that we wanted to do something that reflected our mandate from the state, which is to promote diversity and acceptance,” said Anthony Silva, former chairman of the MCC. “So we came up with the idea of creating a pride sidewalk, which we thought would be a strong visual statement of our community’s commitment to those values.”

The approval of this public art aligns with June’s Gay Pride Month and comes a fortnight after the town’s pride flag ceremony.

“We aimed to create a lasting symbol of pride in Marblehead,” Silva added, “This will mark the first permanent installation celebrating pride in our town.”

The pride sidewalk’s approval arrived as news broke that the Marblehead Pride Committee and community members rallied in support of the Pleasant Street Preschool. Members of the Grace Community Church removed gay pride flags installed by the preschool’s owner, Michael Richmond, who rents classroom space within the church.

“We need to make more assertive statements of acceptance and love,” Silva stressed. “We must ensure that love triumphs over hate.” replied via email, “We are a politically and culturally diverse congregation. For this reason, we do not put signage for many things, even good things, on the church front. We generally steer clear of any displays that may be interpreted as political. As a church, and as a landlord, that is our right. Civil liberties also apply to churches, and means we must extend respect in all directions.”

The email was signed by “The Elders.” Richmond also accuses the church of trying for months to kick out his preschool. Grace Community Church notified Richmond in March that it would be ending his lease in August. It later said that it needed the space for its growing congregation. When Richmond explained that several families had already enrolled for the 2023-24 school year and it would be a hardship for them to find other childcare, the church extended the lease until August 2024.

However, Richmond said the church ignored multiple requests over 10 months for repairs that are required for the one-room preschool to pass a building inspection and keep its license. In fact, state authorities issued a citation against Pleasant Street Preschool on June 14 because its building and fire inspections had expired. Richmond has decided to close the preschool effective immediately.

“The parents and I do not feel safe continuing to run the school there,” he said.

The church denied that it is trying to kick out the preschool.

“That is a false narrative. We as a church do not ever want anyone to feel disrespected. The church board was aware that the business owners were gay when we recently extended their lease.”

Vandalism

When he arrived to teach Friday morning, June 16, Richmond discovered graffiti on the church. Someone spraypainted a rainbow and remarks, including “Love is 4 Everyone.” He notified the police right away. “I absolutely don’t condone this type of action,” Richmond said. “I never would do this and never asked anyone to. I don’t know who did it, but regardless we need to rise above and take a better approach than letting rage lead to retaliation.”

The Marblehead Pride Committee offered to paint over the graffiti. Police are investigating the vandalism. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Detective Sgt. Sean Brady at sbrady@marblehead.org or 781631-1212, Ext. 25.

Show of support

“I’m here to wake up the town of Marblehead to the underlying bigotry and intolerance that is in the heart of their community,” Richmond said to the crowd on Sunday. “We’re here to show we don’t stand for it. The pride flag is about accepting everyone no matter who they are, who they love or who they want to be… so the act of removing it is a clear sign of not celebrating that idea.”

Alexandra Middleton of Marblehead came out in the rain to join the protest.“I have a wife and a son and we’re Christians,” she said. “I want our son to grow up in a town where we’re accepted. I happened to be walking by when Mike approached the couple taking down the flags. They were super, super ugly and condescending. Not Christian. It’s really sad.”

Robert Corcoran came from Wenham to show his support for Michael and the LGBTQ+ community.

“I’ve been married to a man for 30 years, and we go to church every Sunday, except this Sunday,” he said. “When I heard about what happened I felt outrage and sadness. It was so unnecessary.”

Gail New, president at Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead, came out with her husband.

“Our town is rampant with antisemitism and I see this as very similar,” she said. “We’re here to support the community.”

Peyton Pugmire, a Marblehead business owner and member of the Marblehead Pride Committee, says he is — and isn’t — surprised by the recent events.

“For a church or any organization in our small town to act in that way … in a town where kindness rules the day, is surprising,” he said. “For this church to choose to discriminate and behave so hatefully is shocking.”

Jami Reyes, who owns Hip Baby Gear a few doors down from Grace Church, hopes local businesses will be able to find the preschool a new location in the neighborhood.

“I absolutely want to help any way I can,” she said. “I have a huge issue with what’s happened. I know other businesses down here absolutely support them, and we want to help. We need to find them a better space that is supportive.”

State of emergency

The flag incident happened the same week that students at Burlington Middle School tore down gay pride decorations and shouted that their pronouns are “U.S.A.”

The Human Rights Campaign has declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. “following an unprecedented and dangerous spike in anti-LGBTQ+ legislative assaults sweeping state houses this year. More than 75 antiLGBTQ+ bills have been signed into law this year alone, more than doubling last year’s number, which was previously the worst year on record.”

Mimi Lemay is a member of the Marblehead Pride Committee and the HRC Parent Equality Council.

“Sadly, Massachusetts is not immune to hate, and neither is Marblehead,” she said. “You only need to look at particular popular social media accounts to see fellow ‘Headers engaging in ignorant and harmful attacks against their neighbors. The encouraging thing is how the hate is far outmatched by love.”

Lemay continued, “We are at an inflection point. Most people who might never have thought about these topics are learning about them — sometimes because of an incident like this one — and overwhelmingly, they are choosing to support and uplift our LGBTQ+ community members.”