Sharon LGBTQ+ Pride Festival, June 1, 2025
June 1, 2025
Veterans' Memorial Park Beach
Sharon, MA
PRIDE STAGE PROGRAM TBA
You Belong Here. Sharon Celebrates Pride.
Sharon Pride Program
As in previous years, Sharon Pride begins with a car parade, with all the usual rainbow flair. Along with the joy and celebration, the SPSC hopes cars will show solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Stop Asian Hate, Sharon’s faith communities, and LGBTQ+ youth of color. Please especially show support for our Transgender/Nonbinary kids and adults targeted by hateful and damaging executive orders (EOs) and continued anti-LGBTQ state legislation.
Happy Pride! The 2025 Sharon Pride Festival takes place June 1, 2025, from 12-4 p.m., at Veterans' Memorial Park Beach. This year the family-friendly festival kicks off with the car parade and flag ceremony and features remarks by Division Chief of Civil Rights, Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office Elizabeth Matos, bands Miss Christine and Tree & the Sea, DJ Lysse, local leaders, librarians, arts activities, and more.
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The Sharon Pride Steering Committee (SPSC) recognizes the inflammatory nature of recent EOs focused on the LGBTQ+ community, particularly Transgender and Nonbinary youth. In addition, continued legislative attacks on the LGBTQ+ community perpetuate hateful state laws. BIPOC transgender communities are impacted even more by the hateful words and violence that stems from anti-LGBTQ+ EOs and state legislation. Since January 20, 2025, at least ten EOs attacking aspects of LGBTQ+ lives have been introduced. Additionally, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) marks 809 anti-LGBTQ+ bills to date.
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A 2023 research study, “examined the indirect, or holistic, harm of the mere existence of these types of legislation.” Researchers explained: “‘What we actually find is that everyone who is a member of the trans community is at risk of being harmed, simply because these bills exist—simply because people are spending time and engaging in rhetoric around the trans community that is stigmatizing, because they’re signaling that these folks don’t have the rights that other folks have” (American Psychological Association article: “‘The young people feel it’: A look at the mental health impact of antitrans legislation”).
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It is critical that children know, as the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth Co-Chair Craig Martin said in 2022, that “We see you! we love you!…We’ve got you!” (Press release by MA Commission). The 2025 Sharon Pride Festival celebrates our diverse LGBTQ+ community—and our welcoming community as a whole.
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The 2025 Sharon Pride Festival is produced by the SPSC and sponsored by the Sharon Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEIC) and the Sharon Recreation Advisory Committee with support from the Sharon Select Board, the Sharon Police Department, the Sharon Fire Department, and Sharon TV. Sharon Pride is funded in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Sharon Cultural Council, and the Boston Pride Community Fund. The festival is in its sixth year.
