Dear Boston
Queer/LGBTQPI… Community Members and Allies,

The Boston
Pride Committee has chosen a divisive theme (and imagery) for Boston Pride that
glorifies militarism and shows a misplaced sense of priorities. In
response, concerned organizations and individuals have formed the Ask. Tell.
Act. Coalition to encourage our community to think about the issues of
militarism, corporitization, transphobia, sexism, and racism that are presented
by the theme. We are asking for your support and solidarity in ignoring the
Boston Pride Committee’s theme by including the messages below on your floats,
signs, and other Pride materials, and by wearing something hot pink on the day of
Boston Pride.

ASK: Why celebrate
militarism?

We believe that
it is wrong to echo militaristic culture for our queer pride celebration when
thousands of lives are being lost due to the bloody and increasingly senseless
occupation of Iraq. We believe that it is wrong that billions of dollars are
spent funding war and occupation around the world while the needs of our
veterans and our society’s countless other human needs are left unattended.
Furthermore, we stand against the trend of prioritizing the fight against
"Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" at a time when the youth of our community are
facing an epidemic of homelessness, and the transgender people of our community
are facing violence and discrimination at every level of our society. There is
no pride in war and occupation.

TELL the truth about
injustice!

We believe that
the language that the Boston Pride Committee has chosen creates the impression
that Pride is a day for LGBT people to put our lives on display for the
straight, dominant culture. Not all of us are willing or safely able to answer
any question asked of us, as the theme suggests. While, this theme celebrates
"our service to society", we believe that Pride should not be a day
in which we celebrate our "service" to the dominant culture, but a
day for ourselves to celebrate our pride in being who we are. We reject this
language because many of us are not willing or able to proclaim our pride in
what we do for an occupation, to make money, or to "serve." We live
in a society in which queer immigrants are enduring violent, terrifying raids
at work and home. We live in a society in which many transgender people cannot
find jobs due to discrimination. We believe it is unfair, offensive, and in
some cases dangerous to encourage the most discriminated against members of our
community to march in pride of our "service."

ACT
to
transform our community, country, and the world!

We owe it to
ourselves and to the many brave queer people who came before us to continue the
legacy of proud resistance that accompanies queer pride celebrations. We must
embrace a spirit of liberation. We believe that there are countless ways to
express pride in our identities without allowing ourselves to become owned by
Big Pharma, Airlines, Credit Cards, Liquor Companies, and Banks. Major
corporations have no right to exploit and profit off of our community. Our
sexualities and genders are shaped by all the identities we carry. We believe
that in order to truly celebrate our queerness we must make the choice to stand
up against racism, sexism, classism, militarism, assimilation, and all systems
of oppression.

Please join
us in making a visual impact at Boston Pride by including these messages of
resistance and social justice in your signs, floats, and materials. Instead of
camo, wear
something hot pink on Boston Pride day!

In
Solidarity, Happy Queer Pride!

The Ask. Tell. Act. Coalition · www.asktellact.org