Pride takes over the streets of Portsmouth: “Celebrate love”
PORTSMOUTH — The streets of downtown were filled with Pride spirit as a large crowd, perhaps the largest ever, gathered Saturday for the 10th annual Portsmouth Pride Parade. Rainbow bubbles poured over the crowd as marchers dressed in rainbow clothing, hats, costumes, flags, banners and balloons gathered on Pleasant Street.
“We are grateful to be able to celebrate 10 years of Portsmouth Pride,” said Heidi Carrington Heath, executive director of Seacoast Outright, which organizes the parade. “It’s so wonderful to have this space and joy for the LGBTQ+ community.”
She lived on the coast for 10 years and participated in Pride for many years before becoming the director of Seacoast Outright this year. “This is our biggest year yet,” she said.
The community is proud
Bridget Amero from Nottingham brought her 7-year-old daughter Maggie, who wore a unicorn crown, to the Pride parade.
“I came and brought my daughter to teach her how to be an ally and celebrate love,” Amero said.
Mary Fudge of Exeter came to the parade with her 8-year-old son, Oscar, who she said is bigender. They marched with Seacoast Outright’s Little Outrighters group for elementary school-aged youth. She wants to create a safer world for children like her son. “Just safety, that’s why I’m here. I want to make sure he’s safe.”
Becca Kelley of Somersworth marched to show her support for the younger participants.
“I’m just here to support the next generation,” Kelley said. “I was a gay baby and there was just no one.”
Ray Townsend, a Coast native, sat on a bench waiting for the parade to begin. “It’s important to show our pride, but it’s also scary,” he said, referring to recent incidents at Baltimore’s Pride parade. “It’s important to remember that Pride originally started as a uprising in support of LGBQT+ rights.”
Oel Leo, 16, a member of the queer disability community, said: “I feel like there are more people like me, especially where I live,” they said. “The queer disability community is the most accessible and tolerant community I’ve ever been in.”
Elected politicians and companies support the LGBTQ+ community
Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, the state’s first openly gay member of Congress, joined the protesters on Saturday.
“We’ve seen that attacks on the LGBTQ+ community continue. It’s important to recognize that when this community is better, we’re all better off,” Pappas said. “That’s not too much to ask and it’s part of the American compact. We need to pass the Equality Act and ensure protections in housing, in employment, and in all ways people interact with their community.”
Maggie Fisher of Newburyport, Massachusetts, brought her friend Kari Stephens of Fremont to march with the Liberty Mutual group.
“It’s important for Liberty to put their best foot forward at work, and that means feeling supported in the community,” Fisher said, noting that Liberty Mutual supports Seacoast Outright with donations. “But it’s important to give back to them by being there for them.”
The Leftist March Band entertained the marchers with songs such as “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and “Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These.” Rainbow-bedecked parade marshals and majorettes lined up at the intersection of Pleasant and State Streets to lead the parade past the crowds lining both sides of State Street.
Groups such as ArtsReach, the Portsmouth School Board and Out for Biden-Harris, as well as businesses such as Hannaford Supermarket, Riverworks, Revision Energy and Bangor Savings Bank, to name a few, marched behind colorful banners.
Monte Bohanan, the director of communications and civic engagement for the City of Portsmouth, marched in the parade after coming straight from the Fill The Hall event at the Music Hall. The Fill The Hall food drive and fundraiser has always been held on the same Saturday in June as Pride, also celebrating its 10th anniversary. The community response to the drive was greater this year than ever before, Bohanan said.
“Our biggest Fill The Hall event was in 2020 when everyone was responding to the pandemic,” said Bohanan, one of the event’s co-founders. “We raised $76,000 in food and donations that year. This year we’re on track to raise $150,000.”
The parade was headed to the Pride Celebration on the Puddledock Lawn of the Strawberry Banke Museum. There were over 100 traders and live music throughout the afternoon. The celebration began with supportive speeches.
Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern asked the crowd for a “10th anniversary round of applause” and welcomed everyone, residents and visitors.
“This is the open door city, we are always open to new people, new ideas and communities,” he said. “I want to thank Seacoast Outright – this is a great thing they do – for all the big and small things they do every day for our community.”
He also thanked Jim Splaine, who served as deputy mayor, member of the police commission and school board, state senator and representative, and a pioneer as an openly gay man.
“He fought at the local level for decades,” McEachern said, noting that thanks to Splaine’s work, New Hampshire became the first state in the country to pass marriage equality legislation without a court ordering the state to do so.
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“On this day, we celebrate that people can be themselves and love who they want to love, and we remember that it wasn’t always this way,” McEachern said. “Home of the Free means to all of us.”
Senator Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire) also praised Splaine’s work for the LGBTQ+ community.
“Advocating for LGBQT+ rights is critical, and the advocacy of the state’s ordinary citizens saying, ‘This is the right thing to do,’ has made all the difference,” she said. “When everyone is free, we can all thrive together and do our best. That’s what makes us a ‘Life Free or Die’ state.”
Pappas also spoke: “The fight is not over, but look how far we have come. When I grew up in New Hampshire in the ’80s and ’90s, I never imagined I would be able to represent you as an open and proud Congressman.”
Pride celebrations go beyond the march
Long lines of people stretched across the lawn in front of food trucks Claude’s, The Kitchen Table, Whoa Nellie and Cheese Louise. Throwback Brewery hosted a large beer tent. Booths from artisans, community groups, schools and businesses lined the lawn, all showing their support for the LGBTQ+ community with Pride crafts and artwork for sale, free promotional items and the opportunity to talk with members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies. There was also a family zone with activities and games for children and a drag queen storytime with Juicy Garland.
Pride Day was scheduled to continue into the evening and include a free after-party for youth at the Community Campus, an adult happy hour at The Wilder in Portsmouth and an adult after-party at Auspicious Brew in Dover.
Chloe LaCasse, a volunteer with Seacoast Outright, hosted the ceremony and live music. From the stage, she urged those in attendance to call Governor Chris Sununu and “fill his voicemail with protests against the four anti-trans bills now on his desk.”
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“When people meet a queer person, it changes their lives. They think, ‘Oh wow, that woman was trans. She was so cool,'” LaCasse said. “They realize their fear is illogical. It shifts the bar.”
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