Pride Interfaith Coalition

Address: Inside Old South Church

Years Active: 1978–2020

Composed of six Boston-area LGBTQ+ religious organizations across faith traditions—Congregation Am Tikva, Dignity Boston, EarthSpirit, First Church Somerville, Queer Muslims of Boston, and SGI / Nichiren Buddhist Association—the Pride Interfaith Coalition was founded and initially run by Rev. Robert P. Wheatly in 1978 to protest a visit to Boston by notable religious homophobe Anita Bryant. Wheatly organized a protest and march opposing Bryant’s visit, and later that year the group held their first service. They have since held annual services every year, and in 1993 they began to hold them in the Old South Church, where they held them until the group, according to their Facebook page, stopped running them with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Pride Interfaith Coalition’s website notes that the group has gone by a variety of names, and met in a variety of places, since its founding—full list here—but, despite this, they emphasize their commitment to inclusion and diversity within the Coalition. The group claims to be the “longest-serving LGBTQ interfaith organization in the nation,” and notes its aim of queer and trans interfaith engagement in the greater Boston area: the Pride Interfaith Coalition is “dedicated to advocating the full inclusion of LGBT people of faith in Boston.” The group’s website seems to have been inactive since 2019, and they have not posted on their Facebook page since 2020; internet searches also do not yield any substantial information about Pride Interfaith Coalition events after 2020. 

Sources and Further Information: 

http://www.prideinterfaith.org/about-the-coalition/

Relevant Pages:

Congregation Am Tikva 

Dignity Boston 

EarthSpirit 

First Church Somerville 

Queer Muslims of Boston 

SGI / Nichiren Buddhist Association [link to come]