Byron Cortez and his husband moved to Boothbay from Boston in 2022. And while Cortez has generally felt welcomed by his new community, he has also realized that none of the towns on his peninsula formally celebrate LGBTQ Pride.
The discovery sent Cortez on a journey to those towns — Boothbay, Boothbay Harbor, Edgecomb and Southport — to request that each one make some sort of official recognition.
That could be signing a formal proclamation of June as LGBTQ Pride Month, or flying a Pride flag on a town building, or painting a crosswalk in rainbow colors, or any other act to signify acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.
“Boothbay, it’s a pretty big tourist magnet,” Cortez said. “I really want to let everyone know what a wonderful community we have here, you know? We are, for the most part, welcoming.”
But the results have been mixed. While Southport officials immediately accepted Cortez’s proposal, the town of Boothbay rejected it. Meanwhile, officials in Edgecomb and Boothbay Harbor are still deciding.
Many Mainers say they welcome the LGTBQ community, but it’s not the first time a community has balked at a request for a more public demonstration of that support.
Presque Isle officials are now facing pushback after they decided not to fly the Pride flag this year, despite doing so last year. In Ellsworth, city councilors voted to paint a rainbow crosswalk in 2022, after previously rejecting it in 2020.
Boothbay eventually decided against it after Cortez made his pitch on Feb. 13.
At that meeting, one member of the select board, Dale Harmon, expressed concern that if the town makes a proclamation for LGBTQ Pride, it would get requests from other groups to recognize different days or events, according to official minutes. Another member, Chuck Cunningham, said the town can still be welcoming and inclusive without making a proclamation.
After deciding against formally recognizing LGBTQ Pride, the select board told Cortez he can still request to put banners on lightposts or use the common across from Town Hall for events, just like everyone else in town, according to Town Manager Daniel Bryer.
“It’s just to be consistent,” Bryer said in an interview, adding that the select board wanted to keep its actions “fair for everyone.”
But some Boothbay residents have been more supportive of the concept. During the Feb. 13 select board meeting, one resident, Desiree Scorcia, commented that she has Pride flag stickers on her Jeep, and that “she can see the kids visibly relax and smile when they see them and know they are supported and safe,” according to the minutes.
Another Boothbay resident, Liam Kent, has started an online petition for the town to officially recognize June as Pride month, and has written opinion pieces in support of the proclamation in state and local newspapers.
Cortez had a much easier time getting his proposal through in Southport, where select board members immediately agreed to sign a proclamation and hang a Pride flag on the town office building, according to Chair Gerald Gamage.
“We have no reason to be against it,” Gamage said in an interview.
Southport has gotten some pushback against its decision, Gamage said, but it has received an equal amount of support.
Edgecomb has yet to decide what to do about Cortez’s proposal. This week, during a meeting of the select board, members said they’re not against the idea of hanging the flag on the building, but that a decision would have to wait until all members were present at their next meeting. However, they noted there are no crosswalks in town to paint.
Cortez said he approached the Boothbay Harbor Select Board about his proposal, but it’s unclear how the town plans to handle it.
Boothbay’s town manager couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Now that he’s visited all the towns, Cortez said all he can do is wait to see what Boothbay Harbor and Edgecomb’s responses are. Next year, though, he’s considering planning a formal Pride celebration for the region.
It would take a while — at least seven months — to plan an event of that size, Cortez said, which is why he isn’t aiming to do it for this year’s Pride month. Regardless of what happens, he said he’s glad the region is at least having conversations about Pride.
“If nothing else, dialogue,” Cortez said. “That’s a huge win already.”
