State House News: AT PRIDE WEEK LAUNCH, WALSH RECALLS MARRIAGE FIGHT

AT PRIDE WEEK LAUNCH, WALSH RECALLS MARRIAGE FIGHT

By Michael Norton
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, JUNE 8, 2015....Twelve years after a Massachusetts high court ruling legalized same-sex marriage, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh is marveling at how the fight for marriage equality here has extended beyond the nation's borders.

Walsh kicked off Pride Week, a celebration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, on Friday by recalling a phone call with his cousin in Ireland in the days leading up to approval by voters of a referendum legalizing same-sex marriage in that country.

He remembered his former Massachusetts House colleague, Rep. Liz Malia, a Jamaica Plain Democrat who is openly gay, coming to him after the Supreme Judicial Court decision in 2003 and telling him, "I really need you on this fight." Lawmakers after a long Constitutional Convention blocked a ballot question that would have let state voters have the final say on whether marriage equality would stay legal.

Walsh said he remembers talking with Malia about the crowds that filled the State House during the gay marriage debates and "the concern and the fear and everything else that was going on."

"I think 11 years later how that is like a distant memory, that we're thinking like, 'How did that ever happen?'" the mayor told a crowd on City Hall Plaza.

The mayor told Boston Pride activists and others who gathered on the plaza that their work to preserve same-sex marriage in 2004 has reverberated in debates nationally and outside the U.S.

"You had the battle here," he told activists. "You won the battle here and now that battle is affecting countries around the world."

Surrounded by elected officials, Walsh said the LGBT community is "thriving" in Boston and urged people to use Boston Pride week events to "brag about" the city's commitment to inclusion and diversity.

"This week's celebration is not just of identity, but of community, love and equality," Walsh said.

Walsh raised the pride flag on the plaza during a ceremony featuring two members of Pussy Riot, Masha Alekhina and Nadya Tolokonnikova. The Russian artists and activists were jailed in 2012 after orchestrating an anti-Vladimir Putin performance at a Moscow cathedral. They were scheduled to speak Friday night at The Wilbur, which describes Pussy Riot as "a feminist protest art collective which has been one of the world's most prominent activist groups in recent years, aiming to focus attention on the actions of the Russian government and human rights violations at home and abroad."

Boston Pride is hosting events all week, including a parade that starts at noon Saturday in Copley Square and a seven-hour festival on City Hall Plaza, also on Saturday. According to organizers, there were 25,000 marchers in the 2014 Boston Pride Parade, which drew roughly 4,000 spectators.

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06/08/2015