Pittsfield Raises Pride Flag, Dedicates Pride Month to Jahaira DeAlto
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Pride Month in Pittsfield has been dedicated to former city resident and transgender activist Jahaira DeAlto, who was murdered a month ago in Boston.
"Jahaira was an original founder of pride, she helped start the first Transgender Day of Remembrance here in the Berkshires and she helped set the foundation for the LGBTQ-plus community to organize here for the first time," said Kelan O'Brien, chair of Berkshire Pride, at the Pride flag-raising event at City Hall on Wednesday. "We have always been here. She provided that foundation."
The city of Pittsfield in partnership with Berkshire Pride raised the LGBTQ-plus flag in honor of Pride Month with a large photo of DeAlto, who worked with local victims of abuse, prominently displayed at the podium on the steps of City Hall.
A crowd of local and state officials and residents cheered while the flag was raised to "I'm Coming Out" by Diana Ross. This has been a yearly tradition since 2017.
Mayor Linda Tyer delivered the proclamation for Pride Month in Pittsfield.
"This image of Jahaira right here is so powerful, I know we are all deeply saddened and grieving for what she has left us. The legacy that she has left us but the image of her in this photograph is powerful. And I feel her presence with us today just by looking at this image here in front of the podium," she said.
"[The city] honors the LGBTQ-plus community's courage, compassion, creativity, recognizing the social, economic, and cultural contributions they make to our community, including advocating for the equal rights of all people speaking out against intolerance and discrimination and helping to break down the walls and fear and prejudice within the city."
Berkshire County resident Najwa Squailia spoke on the hypocrisy of "pride capitalism" and the many elements that encompass pride.
"More anti-trans bills have become law in this country, young trans people are being denied life-saving medical care and yet, in that same moment those same children can walk into Target or into a local craft supply store and find a vast altar of rainbow covered accessories and appeasement perhaps that they accept gratefully what little protections the culture has to offer," she said. "But an invitation to joy and celebration is an empty gesture unless it is paired with the most basic human rights."
Squailia said transgender children -- like all children -- deserve more than the current conditions that exist within our country. She highlighted the "tremendous figures" in tax dollars allocated for guns and missiles when food insecurity and the need for mental health and social services are their highest.
"Pride is the Black trans women with black, indigenous, and queers of color who have paved the all too bloody ground for our rainbow-colored festivals. Pride is in the radical acceptance of oneself. Pride is knowing that all bodies are good bodies. Pride is in Tulsa. Pride is with the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza. Pride is against Asian hate. Pride is immigration," Squailia said.
"Pride is sex work. Pride is disability. Pride is neurodiversity. Pride is against Orientalism and fetishization of the other. Pride is against mass incarceration. Pride is against the exploitation and appropriation of favor. Pride is in these too little, too late colonial reparations. Pride is in the mutual aid that does not wait for recognition or legitimacy from the cultures, dominant narratives, but comes from love."
State Rep. Tricia Farley Bouvier, representatives from the District Attorney's Office, Ward 1 Councilor Helen Moon, and Councilor at Large Pete White were in attendance at the mid-day celebration among other officials.
O’Brien said there will be no Pride Festival in the city in June but the organization will be supporting Berkshire NAACP on Juneteenth holiday -- June 19 -- which is the day the festival would typically be hosted.
Berkshire Pride reportedly will be holding a rally on June 26, the day that Supreme Court in 2015 held that states may not deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
The organization is exploring festival options for later in the summer or closer to National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11.
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