June 5, 2019

Everyone Thinks A Straight Pride Parade in Boston Is a Hilariously Dumb Idea

Floats, Brad Pitt, and dad jeans. Woo-hoo!

Alena Kuzub/Zuma

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Three guys are trying to plan a Straight Pride Parade in Boston. Just about everyone thinks it’s a terrible idea.

It all started with a Facebook post last week by Mark Sahady, a member of a far-right group who claimed that he was working with the city of Boston to plan a Straight Pride Parade in late August. 

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has not confirmed that the parade is actually happening. And “mascot” Brad Pitt has not confirmed his participation yet. 

Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage, and Boston, whose annual Pride parade draws hundreds of thousands of people, has long been a haven for the LGBTQ community. So it’s no surprise that the concept of a “Super Happy Fun America Straight Pride Parade“—a celebration of “the diverse history, culture, and contributions of the straight community”—has been met with ridicule.

If the Straight Pride Parade organizers’ plan doesn’t work out, the streets of their city will be safe again for heterosexuals the next time a Boston team wins a championship.

 

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WE'LL BE BLUNT.

We have a considerable $390,000 gap in our online fundraising budget that we have to close by June 30. There is no wiggle room, we've already cut everything we can, and we urgently need more readers to pitch in—especially from this specific blurb you're reading right now.

We'll also be quite transparent and level-headed with you about this.

In "News Never Pays," our fearless CEO, Monika Bauerlein, connects the dots on several concerning media trends that, taken together, expose the fallacy behind the tragic state of journalism right now: That the marketplace will take care of providing the free and independent press citizens in a democracy need, and the Next New Thing to invest millions in will fix the problem. Bottom line: Journalism that serves the people needs the support of the people. That's the Next New Thing.

And it's what MoJo and our community of readers have been doing for 47 years now.

But staying afloat is harder than ever.

In "This Is Not a Crisis. It's The New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, why this moment is particularly urgent, and how we can best communicate that without screaming OMG PLEASE HELP over and over. We also touch on our history and how our nonprofit model makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there: Letting us go deep, focus on underreported beats, and bring unique perspectives to the day's news.

You're here for reporting like that, not fundraising, but one cannot exist without the other, and it's vitally important that we hit our intimidating $390,000 number in online donations by June 30.

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