Woonsocket Pride Announces Date of 2025 Festival, Undeterred by Mounting Attacks on Queer Community
Woonsocket, RI, March 20th, 2025 - Woonsocket Pride is excited to announce our fifth annual Woonsocket Pride Festival, scheduled for Sunday, June 8th at River Island Park from 12 - 6pm!
Woonsocket Pride formed in 2020 as a protest to the former city administration’s opposition to celebrating Pride in Woonsocket. Now, under the current Trump administration, we all face rapidly intensifying hostility and intentional targeting of LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, the working class, and all marginalized people across the country. Our annual festival is a celebration of the queer community’s resilience and our legacy of bringing communities together to create a better world.
In March 2025, the United States was added to the CIVICUS Global Alliance’s watchlist for threats to human rights, civil liberties, and international standings. The Woonsocket Pride Board urges our elected officials to intervene on the blatant attacks on human rights and assaults on equality.
Our state officials must implement safeguards for Rhode Island’s access to healthcare, abortion access, education, and protections for transgender youth, LGBTQ+ teachers, and the doctors that provide the above care. We are very disappointed to see school boards across the state reversing their policies that protect and support transgender and gender-nonconforming students in schools. We strongly encourage these school committees to reevaluate their morals in regard to honoring the autonomy and rights of all children.
Public allyship is crucial at this moment. We are very grateful for the teachers, families, and individuals across the state who are showing up to defend the rights of transgender and gender-nonconforming students, and the local organizations, journalists, and programs getting involved as allies to all LGBTQ+ people.
We will always quickly act in solidarity with all of those who are affected by the blatant turn to fascism that is the Trump administration. Our determination and commitment to protecting queer people will only grow to match these conditions, and we want you to be involved too. We will continue no matter the circumstances to celebrate with our community, build the movement, and create a just world. Our organization’s service area includes Woonsocket, Northern Rhode Island, and the Blackstone Valley. We urge anyone across Rhode Island and Southern Massachusetts to reach out to us for support whenever it is needed.
We will be so happy to see you at Woonsocket Pride Festival 2025 on June 8th in River Island Park, and every day as our community, neighbors, and allies.
President Trump says April 2nd will be our "liberation day." Speaking from the White House, Trump said he spoke with the new Canadian Prime Minister, and thinks it will work out between the two countries, despite U.S tariffs that are set to take effect at the beginning of April. Trump is calling that date "liberation day," claiming the tariffs against Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union, will undo decades of those powers "taking advantage of the U.S." 
