The Worcester Pride Festival: An Event for the Whole Community

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Jeffrey Starr, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

The theme of this year's parade is "Pride=Equality".

The Annual Worcester Pride Parade and Celebration is returning to Worcester Common on Saturday, September 7. The parade will begin at 11 am at Institute Park and end at the Common behind City Hall where the festival featuring dozens of musical and comic acts, vendors and food will commence at noon.

Comedian Cindy Foster will be the festival host and country music star Glenn Stewart will be headlining the musical performances. Former Lt. Governor of Massachusetts and the current president of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce Tim Murray is the parade's Grand Marshal.

This year's parade and festival theme is "pride=equality."

In recent years, the Worcester Pride Committee has sought to make their annual September festival more inclusive, visible and kid and family friendly.

"The first change was moving Pride from Water Street to the Worcester Common, the symbolic center of the city and region," remarks the organization Worcester Pride."Our second change was bringing back the Pride Parade after a long absence"

These changes seemed to have worked. In 2011, the first year the festival was held on the Common, it saw over 3,000 people attend. Last year's festival, which was celebrated around the theme of "Stand for Pride", saw this number double to an impressive 6,000.

This year, Worcester Pride plans to become even bigger and better, with more family fun and local entertainment. They have been working with The Woo church to bring in an expanded children's area and they will also be having an official event at Lakeview Church for the faith and family community after the Pride Celebration.

The Importance of Community Engagement

Community engagement is essential to Worcester Pride for numerous reasons according to the organization.

"We do emphasize local talent, since our Pride is about building up the region as much as it is about LGBTQ advocacy. We believe that there is a symbiotic relationship. With an increase in LGBTQ inclusiveness comes a more livable region and vice verse."

This, of course, relates to their partnership with the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce, which seeks to build up the region as well, both economically and socially. This, of course, is a major reason why Tim Murray was chosen as the grand marshal. And Murray agrees with Worcester Pride's mission.

As he states, “I am proud to participate in this great event and honored to have been chosen by the LGBTQ community. In my previous positions, I have always represented everyone in our community and as head of the Chamber, look forward to embracing every business. I am also happy to call this community of rich diversity my home."

John Trobaugh, Worcester Pride co-chair, remarks similarly, relating the economic well-being of the area to that of the LGBTQ community .

“Tim Murray supported our community before leaving for the statehouse and now that he is back promoting the economic well-being of our region, it made sense to the committee to reach out to him. We were all excited and honored to have Tim help us inject new energy into the parade.”

The Mission of Worcester Pride

The greater mission of Worcester Pride is to "recognize, promote, and unify the Central Massachusetts LGBTQ community, allies and supporters."

They welcome "participation in and volunteers for community goals and a variety of sponsored events and celebrates those who make specific strides to enhance the visibility of Worcester’s LGBTQ community. The participation of all, regardless of age, creed, gender, gender identity, HIV status, national origin, disability, race, religion or sexual orientation is welcome.”

In other words, according to Worcester Pride, a healthy community is one that welcomes the contribution of all no matter the differences, and they hope events like the September celebration continue to promote such a healthy relationship.

For more information please visit www.worcesterpride.org.