— Woonsocket Pride —
Our Story
When COVID-19 started…
spreading locally in March of 2020, people across Rhode Island came face-to-face with systemic inequalities like never before. Both the illness itself, and the resulting economic fallout that we’re still facing today, impacted historically-marginalized communities much harder, including LGBTQ+ folks. In addition, 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 an otherwise very 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.
But with pressure from local activists and the lone queer voice on the 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.
Video courtesy of Rhode Island Pride
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.
The former Mayor’s obstruction 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 our permit. But they still instructed the 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.
2024 truly showed us the force that our movement has built. With Rebuild Woonsocket’s full blessing, the planning committee of Leia Fifer, Ken Barber, and Alex Kithes took the exciting step of forming a standalone 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization! With a new mayor and new council majority, the city government worked with us, not against us, and we received support from some of our elected officials. What an incredible difference that made!
Last year, we had 50+ community organizations and local vendors and artists set up tables. We had nearly 6 hours of talent and speakers performing on the main stage. And over 600 people came out to attend the festival, making it one of Rhode Island’s biggest of the year!
We got here by always staying true to our roots. Woonsocket Pride always has been, and always will be, by and for the community. We’re about social, racial, economic, and environmental justice. We’re about Woonsocket and our LGBTQ+ family. We’re about standing up for queer people, working-class people, and our neighborhoods, and standing against state violence and oppression. This commitment is as important now as ever.
This year, we’re building on the strong community presence and reaching new heights. We’re growing our queer artists market, expanding the local resources and trainings offered at the event, filling the stage with even more talent...and we’ve got a few more surprises in store.
As Woonsocket Pride grows, unlike most big-city pride events, we’re using the festival as a fundraiser for direct action programs in our community. LGBTQ+ people across many generations have a history of caring for each other, and Woonsocket Pride holds that spirit in our roots and vision for the future.
