Woonsocket Radio News Room

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 is making major changes in the form of tariffs on what he calls "Liberation Day." The tariffs cover a wide-range of products and are targeting several countries, including Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union. Trump says trading partners have "looted, pillaged, and raped" American industries for decades, leading to a loss of U.S. jobs and manufacturing.        The Midwest and South are being rocked by tornadoes. NOAA's Storm Prediction Center has already issued a rare "high" risk severe weather outlook for the mid-South, mid-Mississippi and lower Ohio valleys. Parts of Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Texas, and Missouri are already under a tornado watch.        Federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams are being dropped. A federal judge issued the decision to toss the case this morning at the urging of the Department of Justice under President Trump. The Trump administration argued the corruption charges brought against Adams while Joe Biden was President were in retaliation for Adams' outspoken position against illegal immigration.        New Jersey Senator Cory Booker is recovering following a record 25-hour speech on the Senate floor. Booker started his marathon speech at seven o'clock Eastern time on Monday night in protest of the Trump Administration. The New Jersey Democrat is protesting President Trump's tariffs, steps he is making in dismantling the Department of Education, as well as several other polices, saying the nation is in crisis.        Amazon is reportedly making a bid to purchase TikTok. The New York Times reports the e-commerce giant has submitted a bid via office letter to Vice President Vance as well as commerce secretary Howard Lutnick. The deadline for China-based ByteDance to sell TikTok is Saturday or it will be banned.        The Nintendo Switch 2 is hitting shelves on June 5th. It costs 449-dollars for just the console and everything that comes with it, while customers can purchase a 500-dollar version that comes with Mario Kart World. The new device will be a bigger and faster version of the original Switch.       

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