PEABODY — The city’s first celebration of Gay Pride Month will be held this weekend.
“Many communities on the North Shore participate in pride marches, but not Peabody,” said Lisa Geczi, event coordinator for Peabody Main Streets who sparked the idea. “We decided it was time to be involved, have a day of celebration, and open our arms to the entire community.”
Geczi reached out to the North Shore Alliance of Gay and Lesbian Youth (NAGLY), a Salem nonprofit whose mission is to respect, educate and empower lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youngsters. Together, they’ve planned “Peabody Celebrates Pride,” six hours of fun set for Saturday, June 29 in Peabody Square.
The free event starts with a family-friendly festival at 3 p.m. on Courthouse Plaza. It will feature DJ Kim Collins, who calls herself Boston’s No. 1 female disc jockey, face and rock painting with help from Create & Escape, the city’s do-it-yourself art studio, B’loons by Derrick, who promises to create smiles by twisting balloons. There will be hot dogs and an ice cream truck.
At 6 p.m., Peabody’s popular pop-up pub will return to Courthouse Plaza. For $5, adults can celebrate pride with music, lawn games, drag queens and impersonators. Ipswich Ale Brewery’s beer truck will offer a cold brew or a drink from the wine bar. Food will also be available for purchase. The event concludes at 9 p.m., as Peabody City Hall lights up in rainbow colors.
“This is another opportunity to celebrate our neighbors, family and friends who belong to the LGBTQ community,” said Mayor Edward Bettencourt Jr. in a statement.
Tony Leone, a 2011 graduate of Peabody Veterans Memorial High School, and one of the pride day organizations, has been a NAGLY volunteer for a year.
“It took me 24 years to come out,” he said. “Being an adult advisor at NAGLY is my way of giving back.”
His goal for Pride Day is to make it as big as possible so youth know there’s a place for them to go, he said.
“NAGLY is place where kids can gather, no matter if they are gay, straight, bi, or questioning, it’s a safe place,” he said. “We want to make it an all-inclusive boys and girls club.”
He said more than five dozen youth, ages 14-23 gather weekly at their offices at the Witch City Mall for two hours to discuss a variety of topics. The groups are divided by age. They come from all over the North Shore, including Lynn, Lynnfield, Peabody, Saugus, Swampscott, Marblehead, and as far away as Springfeld and Worcester, he said.
“It’s not a therapy session,” Leone said. “It’s a way for these kids to get together so they can see there are other kids like them.”
Leone was not bullied in high school, he said, but some of his gay and lesbian classmates were not so fortunate.
The event comes 50 years after a police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood, which some say spurred the gay rights movement.
In the early hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the club that had been a haven for the gay, lesbian and transgender community. Police presence sparked a brawl between patrons and officers. As more police arrived and gay men and women were arrested, a crowd that had gathered outside became increasingly agitated and shouted “Gay Power” and “We shall overcome.” The melee escalated into a full-blown riot, according to witnesses.
Steve Harrington, NAGLY’s executive director, said having a Pride Day sends a strong message of hope.
“It’s amazingly important, particularly in this political climate,” he said.
Gay youth see things like Catholic Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island, he said, who tweeted that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ Pride Month events in June, calling them “contrary to Catholic faith and morals” and “especially harmful for children.”
“When kids see such things in the media, they think they’re less a person, that they’re hated and ostracized,” Harrington said. “To have a pride day in cooperation with city government lets them know they are loved,” he said. “It makes a big difference.”