SWAMPSCOTT — In recognition of Pride month, the Select Board proclaimed its support for gay and trans rights at a meeting Wednesday evening.
“The Town of Swampscott is committed to being an inclusive community and welcoming of all people, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity,” Select Board member Katie Phelan read. “We are a diverse community, enriched by this diversity, including those that are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning.”
The proclamation also pointed to historic hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ+ community, referencing the murder of 21-year-old University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, who was beaten, tortured, tied to a fence, and left to die in 1998. The proclamation condemned acts of violence and bigotry against the queer community, which it said persist throughout the world today.
“While there has been remarkable progress toward acceptance and equality in recent years, members of the LGBTQ+ community in the United States and around the world still face an unacceptable level of discrimination and violence,” Phelan read. “We must push back against those who threaten the safety of our LGBTQ+ residents and challenge our progress.”
The board’s proclamation came less than a week after the town’s Pride celebration on June 3, when hundreds gathered in the rain to run a 5K Pride race through Swampscott, followed by a gay pride flag raising ceremony and festival in front of Town Hall.
After Phelan read the proclamation, Select Board Member Peter Spellios reflected on the event, commenting that it demonstrated a powerful level of progress in the town.
“We had a queer drag queen dancing on Town Hall lawn — something that in other states is a felony. We had our town administrator sit there and have a discussion — an open conversation — with the drag queen about the deplorable state of discussions regarding gender, sexuality, and frankly just human rights,” Spellios said. “It was glorious to see that on Town Hall lawn.”
Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said his sons’ interest in meeting Madame’s Apple, the Swampscott drag queen who performed at the event, showed a sign of generational progress toward LGBTQ+ acceptance.
“For generations, decades, millennia, we’ve been taught something different — we’ve been taught to be inhumane, to be biased and mean-spirited. We’re seeing more vitriol and more hate right now than, frankly, we’ve seen in a few decades, and we’ve got to face that with love and care and concern. Even if we’re uncomfortable with it, we’ve got to continue to have these conversations,” Fitzgerald said.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton declared the month of June Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in remembrance of the June 1969 Stonewall uprising, in which members of the queer community in New York City fought back against police raids at the Stonewall Inn for five consecutive nights, launching the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. The Barack Obama and Joe Biden administrations would expand the federally-recognized month to include the entire LGBTQ+ community.
