Weymouth Pride Project Celebrating Diversity With Rainbow Flags

WEYMOUTH, MA — Weymouth Pride Project, a community effort dedicated to supporting the LGBT+ community and celebrating diversity and inclusion, is providing flags for residents to fly outside their homes as a way promote Weymouth as a welcoming community.

The project's founders, Michael Yavorsky and Annemarie Reardon, have distributed approximately 250 flags to residents and Weymouth High School staff and hope to have at least 500 residents displaying the flags by Pride Month in June.

"This is all about visibility so we are anxious to get the flags out there," said Yavorsky. "We don't ask for donations but we find that people are very generous."

The idea for the project came after several people thanked Yavorsky and Reardon for flying a pride flag outside their home and mirrors a similar effort launched in Hingham last year.

"Really we just want to have a rainbow sea of flags in Weymouth to show community support," said Yavorsky.

Weymouth Pride Project is operating on two main goals, said Yavorsky. The first is provide greater acceptance and visibility of the LGBT+ community and the second is to raise enough money to provide flags free of charge to anyone who wants one, start a scholarship for a Weymouth High School senior who is contributing to LGBT+ visibility, and support future community activities.

The project is also working to distribute copies of a children's book about the pride flag, titled "Rainbow Flag: Bright, Bold, and Beautiful" by Michelle Millar Fisher, to local institutions. Copies has already been donated to Tufts Library in honor of National Library Week and the Weymouth High School library to be included in its a Pride Month display.

Weymouth residents and business owners can support Weymouth Pride Project by ordering flags or becoming sponsors. All donations will go towards local efforts to provide visibility to the LGBT+ community.

"The level of support and acceptance and willingness to participate has been tremendous," said Yavorsky. "One of the other things we are doing is canvassing near businesses and neighborhoods. I was out there a couple weekends ago and people were overwhelmingly positive."

Anyone interested in donating or becoming a business sponsor can visit Weymouth Pride Project's Facebook Page or email weymouthprideproject@gmail.com.