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The statistics landed hard in the middle of a celebration. Standing before the crowd gathered outside Abbot Hall, Marblehead Veterans Middle School art teacher Molly Hauptman told those assembled that LGBTQ youth in their own town are reporting anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts at rates far above their peers, then made the case that a single caring adult can change those odds.
That tension between joy and alarm ran through the annual Marblehead Pride flag-raising ceremony, where a slate of speakers including a state representative, the police chief, a teacher and a high school graduate took turns at the microphone before the Pride flag went up over the town’s most prominent civic building.
Krista Linder, who helped open the ceremony, framed the flag as more than a banner. She called it a visible reminder that the community values its LGBTQ neighbors, friends and residents, and an occasion to honor those who came before. The flag, she said, recognizes “their courage and progress that has been made” while acknowledging the work that continues.
Select Board member Erin Noonan read the town’s Pride Month proclamation on behalf of the Select Board. She declared that Marblehead recognizes the month of June as Pride Month and urged all residents to promote the principles of equality and liberty, citing the town’s commitment to preventing discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity and affirming its support for LGBTQ residents “to protect their civil rights and ability to live openly without fear.”
State Rep. Jenny Armini, who shares her birthday with the event, tied Pride to the country’s founding ideals in the year of its 250th anniversary. “We Marbleheaders are a revolutionary people,” she said. “We understand that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are for all people, no exceptions, no caveats.” She lingered on the Declaration of Independence, noting that Thomas Jefferson called those rights self-evident truths. “They need not be explained,” Armini said. “No big treaties required, no study, no commission.”
Armini did not soften her view of the national moment. She said her phone still dings with outrageous news alerts, described Congress as absent and said the Supreme Court has been politicized. Comparing her remarks to the year before, she said little had changed.
“I look back at my remarks from Pride 2025 and I could say the exact same things today,” she said. She pointed to state-level responses, telling the crowd the legislature created a law protecting patients seeking gender-affirming care and their providers from federal and out-of-state interference, and passed a measure she described as the Massachusetts House banning book banning, which she said leaves decisions about library shelves to trained librarians rather than any single family or official. Returning again and again to one word, she urged the crowd to grow allies, elect supportive candidates and stay visible.
“Pride is a feeling, but pride is also a way of being,” she said. “It’s acceptance and love of yourself and others, and that act is fueled by joy.”
Police Chief Dennis King made support the center of his remarks, calling it more than a word. “Support means showing up, listening,” he said. “It means standing beside not only when it is easy, but when it matters.” King noted the Marblehead Police Department was organized in 1853, making it one of the oldest in the nation, and said that history carries responsibility.
He recalled that during his first weekend as chief in 2021 the department investigated reports of hateful and vulgar graffiti, and said officers more recently charged a juvenile in hateful graffiti incidents at the high school. He said he raised those cases to make a point. “Support cannot be passive when hate appears,” he said.
To the town’s LGBTQ residents, he was direct: “No one should ever hesitate to call us because of who they are, who they love, how they identify or how they express themselves.”
Hauptman returned the focus to young people, describing a classroom built so students “feel seen, respected and safe to be themselves.” She cited a 2022 CDC study finding suicide is the second leading cause of death among people ages 10 to 14, and said LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide as their peers. She pointed to an MGH survey conducted at Marblehead High School last fall in which 64 percent of students who identify as LGBTQ scored above the risk threshold for anxiety and depression, and 44 percent reported suicidal thoughts or behavior, compared with 8.8 percent of heterosexual students; the survey did not provide the number of students surveyed, so those percentages cannot be translated into student counts. Citing the Trevor Project, she said LGBTQ youth with at least one accepting adult were 40 percent less likely to attempt suicide.
“That is a staggering testimony to the power one person can have,” she said. She described the trust of a student as something she cherishes. “Not only should every child survive childhood and adolescence,” she said, “they each deserve the opportunity to thrive.”
Kayden Casale, a 2010 Marblehead High School graduate, told the crowd that back then he saw few Pride flags in town, “certainly not flying over the town at Abbot Hall.” He admitted nerves at the microphone, calling himself the former “very introverted, quiet field hockey captain,” then traced Pride to the 1969 Stonewall uprising and reminded the crowd it began as a protest. He pressed allies to act when no one is watching. “When your queer friends are not watching, you have the ability to influence, to educate and to change people’s minds,” he said. “I’m here giving you permission today. Please spread the word, please educate and please start bridging gaps.”
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