Hampshire Pride and Franklin Pride March On
SPONSORED BY GREENFIELD SAVINGS BANK
Published in Northampton Living June 2025
“You have to balance Pride being joyful and Pride being a protest,” says Clay Pearson, the director of Hampshire Pride. It’s a tricky business, balancing politics and bliss, and one with a significant history. What started off as the Stonewall Uprising in New York on June 28, 1969 evolved into the first Pride marches, held a year later in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Boston got on board in June 1970, and about a decade later, so did western Massachusetts, with the Northampton Lesbian and Gay Liberation March in May 1982. (The parade was held in May, rather than June, because it was in response to legislation targeting groups that supported homosexuality. Every year thereafter until 2020, Noho Pride was held on the first Saturday in May.)
The pandemic put a stop to Pride in Northampton – until Pearson got involved. When Noho Pride didn’t have a parade in 2022, he vowed to make one happen the following year. By March 2023, the organization had dissolved and been replaced by Hampshire Pride. Within nine weeks, Pearson was able to organize an event attended by 15,000 people.
The first Pride parades in the U.S. took place in 1970.
Making Magic
“Rachel Maddow gave us a shout on the air on her show,” says Pearson. “That’s when I knew we'd made it.” (The popular television host declared that Hampshire Pride kicked off all Pride activities in New England.)
This year’s event, held on May 3, included a rally by Northampton Resists, as well as a parade and drag performers. The performers have an exclusive stage in the back of the Thornes building, in front of a tiered parking garage that Pearson says has “become a Globe Theatre,” referring to the open-air theatre in London where many of Shakespeare’s plays were performed. Spectators watch from “different layers of the parking lot walking down from the third-floor balcony seats,” he says. “That’s the magic and the whimsy that I want Pride to have.”
As he does every year, Pearson donned high heels to launch the parade, which included 98 contingents and was attended by 15,000 people.
Learn more at hampshirepridema.com.
Banding Together
Over in Greenfield, this year’s Franklin Pride will take place on Saturday, June 7. (June was officially declared Pride Month by President Bill Clinton in 1999.) Helmed by Heather Mahoney, who has been leading the organization since the pandemic, Franklin Pride expects about 2,500 people, including Senator Jo Comerford, who will join several speakers. Entertainers include well-loved performers like drag queen Mz. October May Lay.
The parade will feature 70 contingents and 40 vendors, and will kick off at noon, starting at the middle school, marching down Federal Street and Main Street and ending at Energy Park.
Mahoney agrees with Pearson that Pride is a balance. “Historically, it’s important so that nobody in the community feels alone,” she says. “Now it’s more important than ever to show that we’re here, we’re not going away, and they are not going to take our joy.”
Learn more at franklincountypride.org.
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