Events, intended to help increase the visibility of the gay and bisexual community, will include a film screening, a flag raising ceremony and panel discussion.
Banners marking gay pride in the city of Springfield line downtown Main Street on Tuesday.SPRINGFIELD – A grassroots group led by City Councilor Amaad I. Rivera has announced plans for a Springfield Pride Week, June 8-16, aimed at increasing the visibility and voice of the gay and bisexual community and its allies.
The event will include a film screening, Springfield Pride flag raising ceremony at City Hall, a Town Hall panel discussion, a youth pride celebration, and a Pride Week party for adults.
Approximately a dozen rainbow-colored flags were hung from light poles along a section of Main Street in downtown Springfield on Tuesday in advance of Pride Week. The flags were provided by Rivera and the grassroots group known as the Springfield Pride Committee, and were hung by laborers from the private Springfield Business Improvement District.
Rivera is the Ward 6 councilor, and has stated that he is the first openly gay member of the council in Springfield.
“This week is about our community creating different avenues to raise our visibility, and to push for our community and allies to have a voice on local issues that affect us,” Rivera said.
The issues include: bullying in schools of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender community; sensitivity training for police; HIV/AIDS; and how to energize the community to have a voice in discussions and solutions, Rivera said.
The gay community in Springfield has been “somewhat invisible,” he said.
It is the first such Pride Week conducted in Springfield and coincides with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month in the United States, Rivera said. The event will expand in 2012, he said.
More than a decade ago, Springfield had an annual, three-day PrideFest Celebration. In Northampton, an annual Pride March has been celebrated for 30 years, held May 7 this year and featuring more than 102 contingents.
The events during the Springfield Pride Week will include:
• June 8, from 6 to 8 p.m., screening of the film “Out of the Silence” at Springfield Technical Community College, Scibelli Hall Theater at Armory Square;
• June 9, at noon, flag raising ceremony at Springfield City Hall;
• June 9, from 6 to 8 p.m., Town Hall and panel discussion, Springfield Technical Community College, Scibelli Hall Theater;
&bull: June 16, from 7 to 9 p.m., youth pride celebration, at Out Now, 32 Hampden St.;
• June 16, at 10 p.m., Pride Week celebration party, Oz Nightclub, 397 Dwight St.
The rainbow flags along Main Street are expected to stay until June 10, when they will be replaced by Jazz Festival banners.
The Springfield Business Improvement District has an ongoing agreement with Western Massachusetts Electric Co., on occasion to place flags, banners and flower baskets, said Donald A. Courtemanche, executive director. The district provides the labor at no charge to groups that meet the guidelines, such as to promote downtown events, he said.