The Story of Woonsocket Pride: Restoring Hope in Our Community

When COVID-19 began local community spread in March of 2020, people across our state and around our world came face-to-face with systemic inequities like never before. Both the illness itself and the economic fallout disproportionately impacted historically marginalized communities including LGBTQ+ folks, and the stay-at-home orders threatened to leave Rhode Island without a Pride festival for the first time since 1976. To help maintain some hope in a difficult time, Rhode Island Pride reached out to eight cities across RI to coordinate virtual Pride Flag Raising ceremonies. Seven of them responded enthusiastically. The lone standout was Woonsocket, whose hostile, extremely conservative administration stonewalled the organizers and refused to return calls or emails.

With pressure from local activists and Alex Kithes, the lone queer voice on the Woonsocket City Council, the former Mayor and council majority crumbled and passed a Pride resolution. But in true fashion, former Mayor Baldelli-Hunt proceeded to ignore requests from the local organizers to coordinate this new pride flag raising ceremony.

Sparked by a spirit of direct action that Woonsocket Pride has carried since, the organizers took the matter into their own hands and held the Pride Flag Raising event without input, support, or directions from the administration. And immediately afterwards, the Mayor started a smear campaign with local conservative media to bash the organizers. From here, the city’s stance on Woonsocket Pride was clear.

In 2021, the Woonsocket Pride organizers and Rebuild Woonsocket came together to plan the first ever Woonsocket Pride festival. Once again, former Mayor Baldelli-Hunt used every underhanded tactic, every bit of bureaucratic red tape she could to delay, obstruct, and counter-program our efforts. This turned our plans for a joyous and exciting celebration of arts and culture into a protest. Hundreds of community members gathered together with supporting organizations and mutual aid organizers to disrupt traffic and march from River Island Park to WWII Memorial Park to continue the first-ever Woonsocket Pride rally.

The following year in 2022, the conservative city council finally approved a permit for Woonsocket Pride, but instructed the Woonsocket Police Department to keep an eye on it “to protect the city’s kids.” And with our efforts growing, unhindered by political opposition, hundreds attended the 2023 Woonsocket Pride festival. It featured a dozen organizations providing resources such as mobile HIV testing, voter registration, harm reduction, parent, family and youth support, craft time with the local Harris Library and more. Entertainment included drag performances, speeches, spoken word poetry and musicians, all while four Woonsocket Police cruisers watched from the other side of the park.

This year, our vision as a strong community presence is coming together and reaching new heights. With five hours of entertainment, local vendors, food trucks and artists, our priority is to uplift the LGBTQ+ community of Woonsocket who for too long have been met with hostility by our city government. Our efforts include building a queer artists’ market, local resources, a diverse and queer-expansive main stage lineup, and hopefully a farmer’s market. As Woonsocket Pride grows, unlike most big city pride events, we intend to use the festival as a fundraiser for direct action programs like an emergency cash assistance program, professional clothes lending closets, and supporting other organizations by providing grants and scholarships.

LGBTQ+ people across many generations have a storied history of caring for each other and uplifting their communities, and Woonsocket Pride holds that spirit in our roots and vision for the future. We’re looking forward to the new city administration working with us to heal the damage done and support our efforts going into our biggest celebration ever in 2024.

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