[Speaker 5] (30:51 - 33:48)
All right, well listen, I'd like everybody's attention for a second if I could interrupt everybody. My name is Sean Fitzgerald. I'm Swampskate's town administrator and thank you for being here.

This is an amazing day and I want to just thank everybody that made this a priority. As a community, Swampskate has worked hard to to really think more critically about building an inclusive community. As I was thinking about what I would say today, I was struck by the fact that on Monday we were here for Memorial Day and we had a day that was about as beautiful as today and I thought about all of our residents that have gone off and paid the ultimate price so that we could actually stand here today and think about freedom.

Think about our ability to live our lives free and live our lives in a way that honors everybody's infinite worth, infinite ability to live a life that is supported not just by your family but by your hometown and this hometown is extraordinary. It is extraordinary that everybody has come out. Every year we have been here we have had more and more people.

It warms my heart to see young children and young citizens know that you're here to support them and you're here to believe in them and we're going to continue to have fun and create moments like this that celebrate our time together. We need each other. We need each other.

We need to support each other. This is a community and these types of events are more important than anybody realizes not just because we're coming out of this pandemic but because we live in a world that is hurting. We live in a world that needs people to talk to people even if you don't always agree with them even if you might have a different idea.

Have the ability to have a civil conversation and engage everybody. We're human beings. Let's be more humane human beings to each other.

With that I'm proud of my son Xavier. I have Wyatt and Miles here today with me and I want to thank everybody who came out and Xavier do you want to say anything? He wanted to tell everybody he went to a yard sale today and got you got a Gucci bag for three bucks.

So oh here's Wyatt. All right Wyatt you got something at the yard sale. What did you get?

[Speaker 7] (33:49 - 33:51)
I just got a bag.

[Speaker 5] (33:51 - 34:45)
All right well listen we got a town-wide yard sale coming up so make sure you get all your stuff and be cleaner and greener. So with that I want to introduce to you a person that is making all this happen. There's a lot of people that make today happen.

I want to thank Danielle Strauss. I want to thank members of Swampskate Select Board. We have most of them here today.

I also want to thank our police and fire department. Thank you for being here. I lost at Corn Hall.

I owe somebody over there a hot dog. Awful. But listen Tammy Fett you are awesome.

You're a Swampskate resident and you're making this place amazing. So have a wonderful day. I'm going to get back out there and enjoy myself and hopefully won't get a sunburn.

Thanks everybody.

[Speaker 7] (34:45 - 34:46)
All right thank you.

[Speaker 3] (34:49 - 36:34)
All right hey y'all how are you doing today? I didn't hear you. Let me try that again.

How are you doing today? Thank you. I feed off of energy so I need those positive vibes.

Thank you. Before we begin any event here in Swampskate I always stop and think about who is here before us. So we are going to stay in that same tradition and we are going to read our land acknowledgement.

We are on native land. The land where our town now resides was referred to as Mesquite. It's from an eastern Algonquin language meaning at the red rock.

Sound familiar? Okay here we are. Long before the fish house was built in 1896, thank you, Swampskate was host to an abundant traditional fishing and hunting ground as well as homes of indigenous peoples.

We acknowledge that every moment we live, work, play, pray, gather, and study in this town of Swampskate, we do so on the lands of indigenous people who for millennials prior to European colonization called this place home and are still here. All right with that said we are going to welcome up Justin Snow, Swampskate resident. Where are you Justin?

[Speaker 4] (36:43 - 41:42)
Good afternoon everyone. My name is Justin Snow. My pronouns are he him.

I'm a Swampskate resident, town meeting member, and co-organizer of this event. Thanks. And so I'm here today to share some history as it relates to pride events and why it's so important that not only these events continue but that history is shared as well.

So what's considered the first pride event which was not known as such but was the Christopher Street Liberation Day on June 28th 1970 took place in New York City and a handful of other cities around the country. The event took the form of a march or parade in order to literally and figuratively take up space for marginalized sexual and gender-based identities as well as the struggle for civil rights. So most notably the the date was a celebration of the Stonewall Riots.

A bit more context for this event we must remind ourselves of the legal and societal discrimination against the LGBTQ plus community at that time. In 1969 in every state but Illinois consensual homosexual activity was illegal. The American Psychiatric Association classified homosexuality as a mental disorder and anti-cross-dressing laws instituted in the 1850s which criminalized anyone presenting in dress not belonging to the traditional social norms of their biological sex were widespread across the country.

On top of this gay bars were essentially illegal largely enabled by a clause in liquor laws that prohibited sale at quote disorderly or quote indecent establishments. So the queer community sought refuge in underground spaces which were regularly raided by police. One of these establishments the Stonewall Inn and although there had been similar events in other parts of the country prior to this such as the Black Cat protest in LA in 1967 the Stonewall Inn incident is seen as a significant and major turning point.

So in the early morning of June 28 1969 there was a police raid and the patrons of the bar did not flee instead garnered a crowd. As arrested individuals were brought out in handcuffs a resistance erupted sparked by according to many accounts Stormy DeLarverie a biracial lesbian drag king entertainer. This ignited a series of continued protests and the formation of several activist groups to carry the momentum.

Other leaders included Marsha P Johnson a black self-identified drag queen and Sylvia Rivera who many now identify as a Latina trans woman. She once stated about her self-identified complex identity I'm tired of living with labels I just want to be who I am I am Sylvia Rivera. Having said that there is no denying there are many subcultures identities labels etc within the queer community that people do identify with and this is great this is okay too.

In fact many of these identities are an integral part of the evolution and history of pride and queer culture and help people feel a greater sense of belonging. As we know in the modern day there has been more mainstream and commercialization of pride events which have its shortcomings but overall it brings me great joy but we must remind ourselves that civil and human rights for LGBTQ plus people should not necessarily hinge on more mainstream concepts like love is love and born this way it is in inextricably about sexual and bodily autonomy. So I feel we must lean into this at events like this in order to preserve the progress that has been made and continue such progress.

So I will close in general the term pride you know we can all be proud of who we are one's identity whether you're a member of the queer community or not but today we're here to celebrate pride and we do so every June to remember the that most queer people in the past and still many people today didn't and don't have the luxury to be their authentic selves like many of us do here today. So we're here today to honor celebrate and create space for them Thank you so much. Thank you.

I now have the pleasure of introducing our next speaker Kim Martin Epstein. Hey everybody.

[Speaker 2] (41:55 - 48:12)
Thanks for coming out. Oh now that we have so many allies I don't want to make anybody uncomfortable. Thank you for coming out here today.

Thank you to celebrate and thank you Justin and Tammy Faye and the staff in town who set up this space who set up the facilities and helped set the tone for what we're doing right now. I see there are several members of the select board and I see there are some folks running for our for our for our state rep seat Doug Thompson and Jenny Armini and Tristan Smith. It's nice to see members of the government here and not just to have an excuse to march in drag.

You know who I'm referring to right Rudy Giuliani. Anyway Justin gave a great great history of pride and I'm going to give you a quick individual history of myself. On June 28th 1969 during the Stonewall riots I'd been alive for one month and math I'm 53.

I grew up in a town that's about an hour away from Greenwich Village where much of this our history was made. I've never lived a day in the closet since I came out in 1991 when I was a senior in college in upstate New York and I went to graduate school in Madison Wisconsin and by then pride celebrations and visibility were really taking hold in places other than New York City and San Francisco. So I had all kinds of opportunities to sport my 1990s dyke uniform.

You can show that next slide no there's no slide of that there is no slide of that. By the time I moved back to New York in 1996 the pride situation was pretty epic and being out professionally while possible was still a little risky in some places but I was was determined to stay out and proud in all aspects of my life. I felt like I had earned it and I headed out here to Massachusetts in 2000.

Fast forward I got married to my wife Peg in 2008 and we have two children and our children are from Swampscot. When I told my kids I was going to be speaking today they said what are you going to talk about how you infiltrated the suburbs. Yep pretty much that's what I'm going to talk about for for some of us pride was always that one day a week or a month where we could be a little more out a little less passing or blending in.

In larger cities pride celebrations have parades and block parties. Pride celebrations were for us to have that one day to really be out and proud and loud. We used to march down the street like in the middle of the street Fifth Avenue in New York and through the Boston Common and Newbury Street and chant things like we're here we're queer get used to it.

Well it turns out in some places folks really did get used to it and that's generally a good thing. My wife and I did not worry at all when we arrived in our neighborhood in Swampscot and played with our babies in the park Clark school and started preschool and then elementary school in Swampscot it was all very very normal and for that we were really grateful. The other side of that is complacency which is likely a theme for a lot of pride events and a lot of pride speakers this year.

After many years for some of us with comfortable complacency we are now beginning to understand that we're probably just one election result or one Supreme Court case or one public tragedy something that infiltrates the good progress that public life has made in our neck of the woods. We're just one of those things away from a different reality. We're under attack right now.

Who do I mean by we? Not just queers. In this attack on our progressive and open society we are all queers, we are all people of color, we are all immigrants, indigenous people, Jews, Muslims, we are all of those things.

I'm going to refer back to that Martin Niemoller quote you know the German theologian who was known for his opposition to the Nazis from his 1946 poem. It's used frequent frequently but it feels appropriate at this time. You'll remember it.

First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

And then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me. So I ask you who are you speaking out for? Communities that look and feel very much like Swampscott nearby have already turned their back on pride celebrations and other opportunities to show pride in diversity and a progressive social community.

Public life is turning in the wrong direction in a lot of places. So today here we celebrate and are proud. We are also resolved to be a bit more vigilant and to speak out when we can, when we must.

The history of pride is not about being invisible. As I said pride celebrations were initially in big cities with chants and parades and flamboyance. But here we are at Town Hall in Swampscott.

We really did infiltrate the suburbs and but not only are we not invisible we're ready to stand up for visibility and safety and equity and diversity and we will, we must speak out. We're here, we're queer and we got you. Thank you.

Now I'm happy to introduce our next speaker Melora Koltoff. Come on up.

[Speaker 6] (48:25 - 50:14)
Hi, so I'm Melora Koltoff. I am a high school student part of the GSA club and today I've written you guys a poem. I might not be the best public speaker so I'm sorry if I mess up or stumble my words.

So I'm just gonna get started. What is love but an emotion to share? What is pride but a feeling that binds us together?

Challenging those who oppose us to dare. For too long we've been locked in the closet. Forced to hide the colors that make us who we are.

For too long we've been silent. Words choking us, drowning us. When we try to speak, to breathe out, to live the threat against us choked us back.

Fading out the colors of our being, tossing us aside, chaining us, sowing us no mercy, no chance at freedom, forcing us to wear someone else's clothing. But now look at us, look at how far we've come. Dazzling in our colors, defiant and true, in the skin that makes us stand tall.

Holding hands with the people we love, no strings attached, no judgment, no fear. We are inspirations, our voices resonating across the world, strong, prideful. We are determined to make a difference, to keep the next generation standing proud, comfortable in their skin.

And if you're afraid, if you're hesitant to take the first step, it's all right. Here in this community we are a shoulder to lean on, a blanket to shield you. You are never alone, you are not trapped, you are not invisible.

We hear you, we see you, and we'll never turn our backs away from you. With this in mind, our pride embedded into my bones, our bones, continue to shine, to be colorful, to be fierce, be an inspiration, to be strong, to take no one's crap, and most of all, be proud.

[Speaker 3] (50:33 - 50:55)
Let's give it up for our Swamp Scott youth. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you for your bravery. Thank you for being here. Thank you for showing up authentically yourself.

Um, we are going to invite up a really good friend of mine. His name is Brandon Brito, and he will offer some reflections for us. Come on up, Brandon.

[Speaker 1] (51:05 - 58:18)
Hey, y'all. My name is Brandon Brito. My pronouns are he, him, his.

I also use el, my way of telling people I speak Spanish. Um, I am a mass plant. Oh, I am born and raised in the Bronx, New York.

So I moved here last year. I'm not a Red Sox fan still. Um, don't think I will be anytime soon.

Um, I'm sorry. Controversial. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Um, but I am now a proud resident of Massachusetts.

Um, I struggled with this today. Um, you know, what do you write in the midst of tragedy after tragedy? Um, what do you say when kids and babies and people of color and innocent people are shot and killed and as a result of just the cowardice of a lot of our elected officials?

Um, what do you say when it feels like we're heading backwards in time? Um, and we're still fighting the same fight that my mom was fighting, that my grandparents were fighting. Um, and here I am needing to fight this fight still.

Um, I don't know what to say. I didn't know what to say. Also, Justin hit on the history of pride so beautifully.

Um, so I was in the back erasing things. All right, he hit that. I don't got to touch that.

Oh, the next speaker hit on that too. Nevermind. I won't touch on that.

Um, but I do want to share a really funny story. Um, they told my mom that I was going to be a girl. The sonogram came out a girl.

It's a running joke in my family. Um, you can imagine why the nursery was pink. The clothes were pink.

Um, everything was pink. Um, and God forbid you put a boy in pink in 1998. Um, so they donated all of that.

Um, but I was a boy. I was going to be named Xena as a princess warrior. I don't know who she is.

I just know she was this famous character in the nineties. Um, I do feel maxed out of inspirational and hopeful words. I work in education.

And so that was not going to be a thing today. Um, but I wanted to bring up this story because it was such a point of embarrassment for me for, for most of my life. Um, again, I was going to be a girl.

Um, but I knew when I was 11, um, I looked up at the God born and raised Catholic. Um, and I asked him to at least make me like girls. I knew I liked boys, but I was like, please let me like some girls.

Um, and there comes Gabriella from high school musical. Um, and I was like, Oh, I'm in love with this girl. Great.

I'm not gay. Um, high school musical two came out. And in fact, I was in love with Troy Bolton, not Gabriella, but I still remember being 11 and praying up to God and asking him again, please, just make me like some girls.

I had a theory, um, as to why the doctor thought I was going to be a girl. Um, because I think I was going to be a girl, but then I think some fairies, some baby fairies changed me last minute, but they didn't download everything they needed to download to make me a boy. That was my theory at the time.

And I'm going to go with it because it kind of makes sense in August 17, August 17, 2017. I came out, I went to the college of the Holy cross. If anybody has gone to a Catholic slash Jesuit college, it's not the best place to come out.

Um, so a lot of my existence felt, uh, a lot of my existence felt as a form of activism at that place. Me having to defend my queerness, me having to defend my queerness amongst those who thought I was straight or straight passing. So I wasn't queer enough.

Two years after graduating, um, which was 2020. I'm here with my first ever boyfriend. Um, I didn't think I'd get to this point where I'd get to actually hold a hand of another guy in public, but no one ever told me about that internal struggle.

When you get to that point, is something going to happen to me? Am I in a safe neighborhood? Is that person a safe person or are they going to approach me or jump us?

Not that they would, because I could defend myself, but still no one told you about the continued microaggressions and struggles with families. As my mom still struggles to call my boyfriend, my boyfriend, but my friend, no one talks about that icky feeling you feel when you go home. So you just run away and hide.

You move to a different state. I don't have all the answers to any of this. I'm still on my journey.

I present this story because I'm still on my journey because not everybody has it figured out. I look up to you though, to those who do have it figured out or those at least faking it. I was a theater major.

I get it. Um, I always joke that the hardest performance is, is playing a straight man. I will say that, but I'm here.

I am queer. And honestly, like I was straight for a bit and it kind of sucked. Like I'm, it was awful, but we're here now.

Um, and in the spirit of those amazing black, trans, non-binary activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera and all the other ones that we don't learn in our history textbooks or that I have to learn about on TikTok 24 years later, I'm inspired. I'm motivated.

This is fire lit in me to fight the good fight. Not for me anymore, for my students, for my future students, for the kids. If, if I end up having them, I haven't decided that, um, I will fight the fight.

A part of that does mean getting to those polls and electing the right officials. A lot of that means holding those people accountable. And I guess some of this might be controversial, but I'm tired of hearing on the news about an unnecessary death that happens.

Again, I work at a school. What if it's mine next? What if it's yours next?

What if it's your kids? Again, I'm here. We all are, and we will fight this fight.

I'm so grateful for all of you for opening this space to me. I'm not a resident here. Um, but because there is no Boston pride, um, I just appreciate sharing the space with all of you, um, and making this journey a lot easier.

So thank you so much. Hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

[Speaker 3] (58:44 - 1:47:19)
Hey y'all. Can we give another hand to all of our speakers today? Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. Um, we need a couple of, couple of minutes before we actually do the flag raising.

So I'm going to turn your attention to the activities under the tent, the activities that we have around us. Um, we have an amazing face painter with us that will do a lot of different fun art on your hand or your face, your arm, whatever. Um, and so let's continue the celebration and we will get to the flag raising momentarily.

Thank you all. Test test. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon. I just want to get everybody's attention over here to the flagpole. We are raising the pride progress flag.

This is the third annual swan Scott pride. Give it up everyone here. All right, y'all.

How, how are we feeling? That feels good. That feels good.

Thank you. I just want to make sure that you all know we are wrapping it up. We had such a lovely time with you all here at town hall today.

This could not have been the event that it was without each and every one of you. I am looking at you, my youth right here out. Yes.

Outstanding energy. Thank you. We feed off of it all, all the time.

One of the things that I just want to leave you guys with is when we think about celebrating pride, some of the things that I hear our well-intentioned allies say is we support your lifestyle. Hmm. Stop referring to the LGBTQIA plus community as a lifestyle.

Full stop. Someone can still value you and disagree with your lifestyle. You chose that same lifestyle the way that you chose, let's say, the hair color of your day or what color shorts you're going to wear today.

Right. So this is not a lifestyle that we are celebrating here. So when we think about being straight, queer, gay, asexual, transgender, non-binary, bisexual, those are not lifestyles.

A lifestyle is something that you choose, something that you can change, like I can change the color of my hair. Right. So comparing our lives to things that are as trivial as hair dye tells us that you do not value us, nor do you wish to understand us.

Our life is not a lifestyle. It is our life. It is our identity.

It is part of who we are. You do not get to pick and choose which piece of us you celebrate. Point blank.

You don't get to value the parts of people that make you comfortable while quietly disregarding the rest. You cannot half love people. You cannot half value people.

You cannot cut people in half and not expect them to bleed. I choose to surround myself with those who fully love me, see me, and value me. If you think people still choose to be a certain type of way, just remember you didn't wake up this morning and choose straight.

Because for me, your math is not mathin' at that point. Let love in. Let love in.

Let love in. Swanscott, I'm proud of you. Let's go on and have a wonderful rest of our day.

Thank you.