Dedham Celebrates Pride Month With Town Hall Ceremony

DEDHAM, MA - The mood was exuberant Friday night as more than 300 people cheered, waved rainbow flags, and danced to celebrate Dedham's LQBTQ+ community in a two-hour ceremony in front of Town Hall.

The second annual event, co-hosted by the Town of Dedham and the Dedham Human Rights Commission, reflected the growing strength of support for the LGBTQ+ community as the country celebrates Pride month with activities throughout June.

The evening kicked off with a performance by the Dedham School of Music Band, which entertained the crowd before the ceremony as people perused the raffle prizes and reconnected with friends.

Purchase of raffle tickets supported OUT MetroWest, a Framingham-based group supporting LGBTQ+ youth in greater Boston and beyond since 2011. However, all attendees could receive free raffle tickets if they chose.

Dedham Human Rights Committee member Chris Kelly emceed the event, which featured speakers who candidly shared their experiences as LGBTQ+ community members and their joy that culminated with this event. The event, which included American Sign Language interpreters, was broadcast on Dedham TV.

He and several other volunteers wore white t-shirts with the words "Dedham Pride" with a rainbow heart centered in between them. He noted that when he drove past Dedham Middle School Friday morning with his sones, several students stood outside waving Pride flags.

"There's nothing about what I just said right there that I ever could have imagined back when I was in middle school," he said. "It's kind of amazing to me how fast things have changed."

This example illustrated the cultural shift that has taken place in communities like Dedham that have grown more inclusive in recent years.

"The change has come thanks to people like you who have said, 'I'm going to live my own life, I'm going to be who I am, and I don't care what anybody says about it,'" Kelly continued. "I'm me. This is my world."

He thanked LGBTQ+ community members past and present for making the "lonely and brave decision" to come out publicly. He also thanked allies of the LGBTQ+ community for standing by them in support.

Fellow Dedham Human Rights Committee member Diane Loud tried to hold back tears after hearing Kelly speak. She is also a member of the Commission on Disability.

"Our responsibility is to show up and to take responsibility when we can and to step up when the voices of the community should be heard," she said of allies like herself. "It's a process of learning and being willing to make mistakes."

Maureen Hurley, a Dedham resident, educator and public parenting expert, described her experiences as a lesbian woman growing up in the 1960s and 19u70s in Dedham.

"I'm so old that the word 'queer' makes me cringe a little," she said, "because I was taught growing up that we weren't supposed to say those words."

"It was a lonely and frightening experience," Hurley explained. Although she belonged in a Dedham church since 1961 and has sung in its choir for the past 20 years, she could not marry in that church despite being one of the first 200 gay couples in the nation to legally marry when the law supporting gay marriage was passed in 2004.

She described a giving tree at the church that was used during the holiday season. Gifts that were needed by less fortunate members of the community would be written on paper ornaments and placed on the tree, which church members would then select and buy the requested gift. The giving family would then place an ornament on the tree for the recipient family as a sign of connection.

However, when Hurley placed a rainbow ornament on the tree, she said it was removed. She came back with zip ties and two more ornaments, which also were taken down.

"You would literally have to take pruning shears to these suckers," she said.

In 2019, new rules were established so that no one could place an ornament on the tree unless they were members of the tree committee "because, according to the pastor, it had become political." Despite the rule, she came back with rainbow ornaments "because somebody in that congregation needed to see a rainbow ornament."

A group of supporters she termed as "tree fairies" then decorated the entire tree in rainbow ornaments. At that point, the tree was removed.

"That's how dangerous we are, folks," Hurley said.

Her example inspired a daughter of one of the choir members to come out at a younger age and recently marry her female spouse because "families are made up of people who love each other," she added.

Max Gorman, a 2021 graduate of Dedham High School, helped plan the event as part of the committee. He spoke about how he discovered his transgender identity at the age of 13.

"This was a time when I think gay marriage had just been legalized," he said. He spoke about his ancestry of Irish and Portuguese relatives, wondering if some of them might have been queer.

"I consider myself and my generation to be so extremely lucky to have access to the internet and online communities of people who are like us," he continued. "It's a bit of an understatement to say that being queer is not easy, and it's not always fun. But the community is definitely one of the best things.

"Don't let your brain trick you into thinking you don't also have community here," he added as the crowd shouted and clapped.

"I think it's really important for everybody to be celebrated and feel affirmed," said Loud, who is Gorman's mother. "This year, we have so many people helping. The number of businesses that supported us with the raffle was phenomenal. Sometimes you don't know what support is out there until you look around, and that is important as well."