Youth of color energize Boston Pride

Lesbian, gay, bi and trans youth of color and their allies were in major motion during Pride Weekend in Boston, organizing and taking part in events and demonstrations across the city on June 13-15.

From Back Bay and downtown Boston to Dorchester, youth from Boston GLASS, an LGBT drop-in center, as well as the Boston Youth Organizing Project and Fight Imperialism—Stand Together (FIST) played a major role in asserting their power to lead.

During the LGBT Pride March, youth organizers of color rode past thousands of spectators on the Stonewall Warriors Float. It was covered with posters reminding the crowds of the cases of the Jersey 4 and Sean Bell—youth of color who have faced repression and death at the hands of the state.

Stonewall Warriors and Boston GLASS youth led the cheering crowds in chants of “Gay, straight, Black, white! All unite to fight the right!” and “Trans youth under attack! What do we do? Act up, fight back!”

Their stirring passions and the crowd’s enthusiastic response were in marked contrast to the dreary parade of corporate-sponsored bank floats, utility company trucks with ill-fitting rainbow banners, and hack politicians who exploit the revolutionary character of gay pride more and more every year. A bright spot was the dozens of UAW and UNITE/HERE members who marched together just ahead of the Stonewall Warriors float, supported by members of the Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union, USWA Local 8751.

This new Boston-based organizing force of nearly two dozen youth, mostly of color, had for weeks also been organizing a desperately needed HIV Health Fair held June 16 at the Epiphany School in Dorchester, Mass., in coordination with Dorchester’s Healing Our Land, Inc., led by minister Franklin Hobbs. For weeks they met constantly, setting up the New Era coalition to mobilize a fightback movement to stop the spread of HIV in communities of color in Boston.

The state’s AIDS bureau has been unable to devise effective policies to diminish the ever-rising HIV rates in the Black community, so these youth and Healing Our Land have taken matters into their own hands. They passed out thousands of flyers, made countless phone calls, and on Pride day spread the message over the Stonewall Warriors’ sound truck microphones: “Get tested! Know your status! Stop HIV!”

As a result, more than 150 people came out to the Health Fair in Dorchester for the workshops, food, inspirational speakers and free HIV testing. Rap artist Natural Bliss performed and urged people to remember the case of Sean Bell, shot dead by New York police two years ago. Fifteen HIV tests were administered.

Geo Yovannys, a Boston GLASS organizer, explained to Workers World the importance of this event: “It’s not right that the government is hiding the real numbers of the people who are infected. We need more youth like us to do this work. All schools should have this movement in their schools and have HIV testing available there. The little ads that are out there are not enough to get people tested.”

Keeping up the beat, New Era youth organizers will next be helping Healing Our Land organize a July 19 HIV awareness march in Dorchester. For more information, contact the Rev. Franklin Hobbs, [email protected].