Category: Dorchester Reporter

  • Dot delegation has mixed feelings on state flag and redesign of seal

    Dorchester legislators have mixed feelings about the new Massachusetts flag and seal design options that have been laid out by a state advisory commission.

    After a previous panel failed to select a design in 2023, the current commission sifted through more than 1,150 entries to come up with three finalists for a flag, motto, and seal just before Labor Day, according to State House News Service.

    The existing flag and seal features a Native American man standing with a hand holding a sword above his head, and has been deemed offensive to Native Americans by many critics.

    The commission narrowed its designs to images depicting a mayflower, the Blue Hills, and turkey feathers as a way to celebrate Massachusetts’ natural history. They plan to have public hearings this fall to make a final decision.

    State Sen. Liz Miranda, who represents parts of Dorchester and Roxbury in the Second Suffolk district, favors a change.

    “As the Senate Chair of the Joint Committee on Racial Equity, Civil Rights, and Inclusion, I support the creation of a new state flag and the Commission’s thoughtful process in studying and recommending symbols that better reflect the values and diversity of Massachusetts today,” Miranda, a Democrat, wrote in an email.

    Rep. Brandy Fluker-Reid, of Mattapan, said: “The Massachusetts state flag represents all of us, and I believe the people should have the final say in what it looks like.”

    “While I respect the process that brought us to this point, my focus remains on the urgent issues facing our communities — issues such as protecting our seniors, education, public safety and economic opportunity,” said Fluker-Reid. “These are the priorities that directly impact the lives of families in our district.”

    p6 finalists state flag REP 41-25.png

    Rep. Russell Holmes, who represents parts of Mattapan, Dorchester, and Roslindale, supports a redesign, but doesn’t like any of the three finalists.

    “We’ve known it’s been important for indigenous people and Native Americans for years now, and we need to address it,” said Holmes, who added that he wants Native Americans and indigenous people to have an amplified voice in the process.

    He said that it has taken the Legislature a long time to address the issue, and the results are not satisfying.

    “I also just think that the three designs are not creative enough, ingenious enough, or thoughtful enough,” says Holmes. “I will be concerned if those are our final three.”

    Rep. Daniel Hunt, of Dorchester, said he does not have a strong opinion about the current design finalists, but supports the public’s ability to weigh in, which is why he voted to support the creation of the commission, he said.

    Hunt does favor keeping the state’s longtime motto, a Latin phrase “Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem,” which translates to “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”

    State Sen. Nick Collins and Reps. Christopher Worrell and David Biele did not respond to requests for their comments.
    Gov. Healey said in September that she is focused on lowering housing costs, energy bills, and handling issues with ICE, and the flag design is not a priority for her while noting that she supports the legislative effort.

    One of her declared Republican opponents in next year’s gubernatorial election, Mike Kenneally, has argued that the state has more pressing issues right now and believes changing the flag would be a legislative nightmare.

    Holmes said it shouldn’t be that complicated. “We have been going back and forth on these flag conversations for too many years,” he said, “so I think we need to go on and nip it in the bud.

    “So even if there are lots of things happening, I don’t want us to get caught up in the politics of the Republicans asking why we are even changing the flag and why this is important.”

  • Boston advocates watching statewide ‘YIMBY’ push on housing matters

    The “Yes in My Backyard” (YIMBY) movement is backing a legislative proposal that would amend local zoning laws statewide – except for Boston – and allow for a broader range of housing options, including streamlined approval for small lot subdivisions, the abolition of minimum parking lot requirements and the lifting of limits on accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

    While the ongoing effort is important, said Dorchester’s Lori Hurlebaus of Dorchester Not For Sale, a neighborhood housing organization, it doesn’t go far enough to meet the needs of communities like hers.

    “The idea that zoning restrictions are what is the driving force behind housing production is false,” she said. “What we truly need in our community is affordable housing,” she added, citing proposals like the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, which died in a State House committee in 2023, and efforts at rent control paired with zoning changes.

    Her group wants to ensure that new housing is built with strong anti-displacement protections, she said, noting that “when we are building just housing, without pairing that with protections and housing that’s actually affordable to the residents that live here now, then it just deserves to drive us out of the very communities that we built.”

    As to the exemption of Boston from the “YIMBY” proposal, interviews with backers of a Housing Abundance Amendment effort show that they want the YIMBY bill to include Boston because, they say, what happens in the city would play a key role in addressing the housing crisis in Massachusetts.

    Said Jesse Kanson-Benav, the executive director of Abundant Housing Massachusetts, Boston’s zoning laws allow changes to come from anywhere in municipal government before they are sent to the Zoning Board of Appeal and then to the mayor. Since the city’s zoning code is outdated, contractors in Boston deviate from the code and develop housing by variance.

    The proposed amendment would allow ADUs to be built in every neighborhood, reduce parking requirements, allow buildings to be six stories – and up to 12 stories for developments within a half mile of public transit, Kanson-Benav said.

    “We need other cities and towns to step up and do more,” said Kanson-Benav. “So, things like the legalization of ADUs statewide or the MBTA Communities Act, both of which don’t apply to the city of Boston, are important steps to make sure other communities are building new homes. The YIMBY bill is another step toward that goal.”

    Advocates said the bill would cut some of the “red tape” that slows development. “Right now, [housing] opportunities are blocked by outdated zoning rules, minimum lot sizes, excessive frontage requirements, and parking mandates to make small projects financially challenging and restrict design options,” said Keith Fairey, president and CEO of Wayfinders, a Springfield-based organization that helps connect families with housing.

    He noted the scarcity of multistory apartment buildings in communities like Springfield as part of the problem. The YIMBY bill would support changes to housing codes that would streamline projects and create a process for the missing middle-housing division.

    Massachusetts zoning laws do not outline uniform permitting standards, which means that contractors need permits from each municipality. Site plan review is the only way for a community to review a project before it grants a permit, but since it is not codified in state law, the process varies across the Commonwealth.

    “With 351 different versions, the current site plan is not predictable, efficient or universal,” said Rep. Kristin Kassner, (D-Hamilton). “Meaning that there are no criteria or time to review projects. Some communities do site plans very well, others do not, which can result in lengthy and unnecessary delays.”

    Another issue that arises from municipal zoning regulations is that parking regulations are often outdated and result in extra expenses.

    “The [parking] codes were not adopted through careful study and analysis,” says Daniel Herriges, policy director at the Parking Reform Network. Most often, they were copied verbatim from one town to another, and planning reports from the post-World War II era readily admit that they were quite simply guesswork.”

  • At-Large council candidates differ on policing, housing and school reform

    At-Large City Council panel: (from l to r) Marvin Mathelier, Julia Mejia, Erin Murphy, Will Onouha, Henry Santana, Alexandra Valdez, Frank Baker and Ruthzee Louijeune. Photo by Jacqueline Manetta.

    A forum for candidates running for at-large seats on the Boston City Council revealed stark differences in how the candidates would approach education, public safety, housing and other issues.

    The June 16 forum at Suffolk University — organized by a group of Democratic ward committees— drew eight of the nine candidates seeking four seats: incumbents Ruthzee Louijeune, Julia Mejia, Henry Santana and Erin Murphy, and challengers Will Onuoha, Marvin Mathelier, Alexandra Valdez and Frank Baker. Yves Mary Jean, who did not attend the first candidates’ forum, did not attend this one either. The event was moderated by UMass Boston professor Travis Johnston.

    On issue after issue, Onuoha and Baker – often joined by Murphy – voiced opinions in polar opposition to the rest of the field.

    Education

    The question of whether Boston School Committee members should be elected or appointed by the mayor, as they are now, elicited strong reactions from the candidates. Only Valdez, Baker, and Onuoha said they do not support having an elected committee.

    “Our kids matter far too much for us to start playing politics with education,” Onuoha said.

    Mejia quickly countered him.

    “To say that Black and brown people are under-educated or unable to decide what democracy looks like, I take offense to that,” Mejia said, “because we’re in a moment right now that we have to understand that people want more democracy, not less.”

    Baker, Murphy and Onuoha said they do not support the state’s decision to drop the MCAS as a graduation requirement.

    The candidates agreed on other school issues, including expanding early education programs to infants and imposing a bell-to-bell ban on cellphones in schools.

    Asked how they would address inequities in education, the candidates offered different ideas. Murphy emphasized tackling chronic absenteeism and boosting support for mental health, music and art. Valdez and Frank called for more space for pre-K students. Louijeune, the current councilpresident, highlighted poverty and the need for affordable child care.

    Mejia stressed supporting early childhood education practitioners. Onuoha said he would advocate for helping parents who are struggling with housing. Mathelier and Santana said they would focus on transportation and housing, as 10 percent of students have been homeless during the school year.

    Pictured at the forum (from l to r) Travis Johnston, the moderator, Marvin Mathelier, Ruthzee Louijeune, Henry Santana, Alexandra Valdez, Erin Murphy, Julia Mejia, Frank Baker and Will Onouha. Photo by Jacqueline Manetta.

    Public safety

    Onuoha, Murphy, Baker and Valdez said they would not want police to stop working with the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), a federally funded counterterrorism agency that aims to prevent crime through data-gathering and analysis.

    Onuoha, a Mission Hill native, said growing up in a neighborhood directly impacted by street gangs in his youth is part of why he supports BRIC’s work. Louijeune mentioned a deportation that resulted from the center’s intelligence sharing, but Baker said that example is outdated and is not a reason to stop working with it.

    Murphy, Onuoha and Baker said they do not support legalizing overdose prevention centers, where people can safely consume drugs. The candidates all said they would support a policy banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from schools and courthouses.

    Housing

    Baker and Onouha said they do not support Boston’s updated Inclusionary Zoning policy (IDP) that requires 20 percent of new housing units to be income-restricted as a way to increase affordable housing in the city.

    Housing construction has slowed in Boston, Baker said, because it has become unsustainable to follow the 20 percent policy.

    “So 20 percent of nothing is nothing at the end of the day,” he said.

    Onuoha agreed and said focusing on workforce housing – aimed at tenants who earn too much for subsidized housing but not enough for market-rate housing – would be his solution.

    “You have to be poor to get into affordable housing,” Onuoha said. “You have to be poor to stay in it.”

    Baker, Onuoha and Murphy said they don’t support Mayor Michelle Wu’s rent control proposal to cap rent increases at inflation plus 6 percent.

    Baker explained why he opposes it: “Because a lot of renters like myself are small property owners, and I don’t think we necessarily need the government to tell us what we can charge for rent.”

    Onuoha said the regulation aimed at stabilizing rent doesn’t work. “We outlawed rent control,” he said, because it increased the cost of housing.

    Asked how they would ensure that Boston prioritizes long-term stability for low-income residents, families, and older people, Onouha again mentioned workforce housing, while Baker said he would direct city dollars at housing rather than focusing on policies.

    Louijeune emphasized the need for rent stabilization policies as a commitment to Black and low-income communities, preventing them from being displaced by gentrification.

    Mathelier advocated for revising Article 80, the process that governs how new development projects are reviewed and approved by the Boston Planning Dept. Santana used the city of Austin, Texas, as a model of what they should aim for.

    Valdez said the most secure generational housing is achieved by creating tenant protection programs. Mejia and Murphy talked about their work on the City Council and the importance of working with the communities.

    Transportation and infrastructure

    Baker was the only candidate to oppose extending past 2026 free bus fares for all riders on routes 23, 28 and 29 through parts of Mattapan, Roxbury and Dorchester.

    “To say that fares are free, we’re paying for it one way or another,” Baker said.

    He was also the only candidate to oppose updating zoning rules to require new buildings to achieve net-zero carbon emission standards.

    Mejia, Murphy, Baker, Onuoha and Louijeune all said they oppose the renovation of White Stadium.

    Each candidate then offered their visions for a transportation system that balances safety, sustainability, and the needs of drivers, bicyclists, transit riders, and pedestrians.

    “Transportation and housing issues are actually married,” Onouha said.

    Baker said the city should do more with water taxis.

    “And we should also look to see what Uber and Lyft are doing,” he said.

    Civic engagement and leadership

    Murphy, Onuoha and Baker said they oppose increasing the $2 million allocated for participatory budgeting, which now allows residents to decide how part of the city budget is spent.

    The candidates were asked to grade the city’s success in engaging the voices of diverse residents.

    Mathelier, Murphy, Onuoha, Santana, Valdez and Baker all gave Boston a C. Louijeune gave the city a B-, and Mejia gave it an incomplete.

    They were asked to share what steps they would take to engage the voices of small businesses. There was overall agreement on the need to listen closely and find creative ways to include residents in conversations.

    A full video of the forum is available here.

  • Robert Cappucci makes yet another bid for mayor; one of three challenging Mayor Wu

    Robert Cappucci. Georgia Epiphaniou photo.

    Robert Cappucci has been campaigning for public office for more than five decades, with runs for state representative, Congress, City Council and now, for the fourth time, mayor of Boston. 

    “A winner, as they say, never quits, and a quitter never wins,” says the 80-year-old one-time Boston Police officer.

    He has been successful twice: In 1987, and again in 1989, he was elected to the Boston School Committee. He didn’t have an opportunity to win a third time because membership on the school panel became an appointed position in 1991.

    Before, during, and in between his attempts to win public office, he has had his hand in different lines of work. In addition to his time with the BPD, he was a substitute teacher in the for Boston Public Schools and, for several years, he was involved in real estate.

    A lifelong East Boston resident who grew up with four siblings and served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War (1968-1974), he has never been married. He describes himself as a “workaholic.”

    In 2013, he announced a campaign for mayor but failed to turn in enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. In 2017 and 2021, he made the ballot, but did not advance beyond the preliminary municipal elections, receiving 6.7 percent of the vote in 2017 and 1.1 percent in 2021.

    Cappucci has roots in electoral politics. His father, Enrico, represented East Boston as a Democratic member of the Massachusetts House from 1937 to 1949. He says his father told him that he wasn’t cut out to be a politician. “I guess he knows what a politician is, and I don’t.”

    Still, Cappucci didn’t know exactly what his father meant by his assertion – Enrico died in 1976, two years before his son’s first run for public office, for state representative – but he later interpreted it to mean that politicians pander to different audiences. 

    “As I got older, I think of a politician as someone that is pretty good with their words, so they don’t really commit themselves,” Cappucci says. “A politician to me seems to have no — I hate to say it — conscience.”

    He is running as a conservative in a city that has had a Democrat in the mayor’s office continually since James Michael Curley took office for the third time in 1931. But Cappucci has never been deterred by the political makeup of his city, where 39.7 percent of voters are Democrats, 55.2 percent are unenrolled, and 4.3 percent are Republicans.

    “Although it’s a liberal city, there are plenty of people out there that have my way of doing things,” he says, “a conservative way.”

    John Dillon, a self-styled “liberal,” has supported Cappucci the office-seeker from his first run for School Committee through his bid for mayor in 2021. A knee injury has kept him on the sidelines this year.

    “He did his service on a nuclear submarine. Do you know what you have to do — to go through — to do that?” Dillon asked. “You’re put through all sorts of psychological tests and everything else, so it told me he was a real bright guy. And the fact that he always wanted to help the poor was another thing that really hit me.”

    Cappucci says he is running as a “unifier candidate,” which to him means bridging the gap between Democrats and Republicans on certain issues.

    In 2021, he was a critic of so-called “sanctuary cities.” Though he didn’t clearly lay out his stance for his latest campaign in this interview, he did say he favors President Trump’s efforts to increase arrests and deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

    “He’s going after, from what I have been observing, people that are very bad,” Cappucci said. “They’re killers, they’re murderers, they’re rapists. That’s who he’s targeting.”

    When pushed on this statement with examples of detentions involving undocumented individuals without criminal records — like Marcelo Gomes da Silva, a Milford teen who was detained by ICE on his way to volleyball practice in May — Cappucci said he wasn’t sure that media accounts were accurate. 

    “As my father always told me, being an attorney in politics, he said, ‘Don’t believe everything you read,’” he said. “So, when you get situations like that, I’m not sure we’re getting the truth.”

    Cappucci is a critic of incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu, especially with respect to her handling of the situation at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, an area with a history of rampant substance misuse. 

    Richard Masterson, a Cappucci supporter and lifelong Roxbury resident, said no one is solving the problem. 

    “It seems like they just push it from one area to another area to another area,” he said. “There are people shooting up drugs, needles hanging out of their necks and out of their arms, and sitting on the curbs. They have nowhere to go.”

    Cappucci holds Wu responsible for the ongoing problem. He told Masterson that, if elected, he would seek to reopen Long Island Hospital, which offered addiction treatments but was closed in 2014 when officials deemed the bridge to Long Island to be in poor condition. 

    Among his other concerns about Wu’s mayoralty is the ongoing redevelopment of White Stadium in Franklin Park. “I really have a problem with trying to do things when you’re giving away the tax dollars,” he said. “We need that money for so many reasons.” He said housing, education, and infrastructure should take precedence over the stadium.

    Although wins and losses are out of his control, Cappucci says that running for office is what he wants to do for the rest of his life.

    “As a Catholic, I’m trying to do the best I can. So when I go before him — when I pass away — he can say, hopefully, ‘You did a good job.’”

  • Dot man drives LGBTQ+ museum plans

    Jean Dolin, a Haitian immigrant who was raised in Dorchester, is the person behind Boston LGBTQ+ Museum of Art, History & Culture. Dolin came up with the notion for the traveling museum in 2020 after years of working in politics and journalism.

    “I emerged out of Covid wanting to do the thing that moves me, the thing that I feel like would inspire, would inform, but would also empower,” Dolin said.

    “And then something kind of sparked,” he said. 

    Inspired by a photography exhibition he’d seen in the streets of Boston, he created “Portraits of Pride,” which is now in its fourth round. The latest iteration of the exhibit, featuring 10-foot-tall portrait banners of people who have stood out in their communities, is now installed at the Connector/Winthrop Center Park. 

    It includes 20 portraits, photographed by John Huet, including Gretchen Van Ness, executive director of LGBTQ Senior Housing, Paul Glass and Charles Evans, founders of LGBTQ+ Elders of Color, and Jerome Smith, a Dorchester resident who is the senior manager of external affairs at Amazon and Boston’s former chief of civic engagement.

    On June 11, the museum opened a new show, a collaboration between the two artistically renowned cousins, Paul Firmin, a queer Haitian artist widely known as KINI, and Rejeila Firmin, the exhibition’s curator, as the artist in residence. The presentation is at the Pryde Gallery, at 59 Harvard Ave. in Hyde Park.

    “I think I’m also excited that this is a Haitian queer artist that is doing it,” Dolin said. “There is a very long history of homophobia in Haiti. So that’s easy for these two identities to be held in one body.”

    The exhibition will be up until mid-September, and then will be followed by another, Dolin said.

    The museum’s 2026 project is still in the works, but there are plans to have a commemoration of the 250th birthday of the United States in the spring, and then travel with it across the state in 2027 and 2028.

    “So, at that point, we’re going to be evolving the name of the institution from Boston LGBTQ to Massachusetts LGBTQ,” Dolin said, “because ultimately, we’re telling the history of the state, and we want to evolve into a statewide institution.”

  • Domingos DaRosa eschews funds in his long-shot mayoral challenge

    Domingos DaRosa stands on the corner of Dudley and Burrell streets, and it seems as if everybody in Roxbury knows him. Friends, family, and strangers yell to him on the sidewalk, across the street and even from their cars. “They love you, Domingos,” said a passerby standing outside Ideal Sub Shop.

    DaRosa is hoping to convert that goodwill into votes for his first bid for mayor of Boston. 

    A near-lifelong Boston resident, the 47-year-old DaRosa moved from Cape Verde to Boston with his family when he was 10 months old and grew up with part of his home in Dorchester and the other in Roxbury. 

    “Growing up here, we had nothing,” he said, “so we built a community with the community. Being Cape Verdean in a community, we were so diverse. Spanish, Black, Cape Verdeans, you name it…all the kids in the neighborhood, we all hung out together.”

    DaRosa, the father of four, owns a landscaping business and volunteers as a coach with the Boston Bengals Pop Warner football program. He launched his campaign on Feb. 2 of this year with a simple post to his Facebook account: “I’ll be running for the mayor seat in Boston.”

    This is not his first city campaign. He ran unsuccessfully for City Council at-large seats in 2017, 2019 and 2021.

    His campaign manager, Sharon Hinton, said she was surprised with DaRosa’s decision to run for mayor.

    “I’m not going to lie. When I first thought about it, I was like, ‘Seriously, mayor?’” said Hinton, who campaigned for DaRosa during his 2021 venture. “I was thinking about who he was coming up against.”

    DaRosa is one of three challengers who made the ballot to challenge Mayor Wu, with Josh Kraft, son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and East Boston resident Robert Capucci being the other two. The four will face off in the preliminary municipal election Sept. 9 to determine which two candidates appear on the Nov. 4 ballot.

    Hinton was initially deterred by the lack of funding for DaRosa’s campaign, noting his disadvantage in that respect compared to some of the other candidates. But, that helped to inspire his campaign slogan, “For the people — not the money.”

    Said DaRosa: “I have no money, and I don’t want it, I don’t need it, I don’t care for it, and I don’t think I need it to be able to achieve my goal.”

    While he is raising small dollar donations, he mainly depends on volunteer labor. Hinton isn’t paid for her efforts; one of the students he coaches in the Pop Warner program designed his campaign website; and friends and family members helped to gather the 3,000 signatures necessary to get his name on on the ballot. 

    Natalya Bethel, a DaRosa supporter, used to pick up needles with DaRosa at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, an area with a history of rampant substance abuse.

    “You have to get a mayor that really cares about the city for the city to improve,” Bethel said, “to clean up that mess, to clean up the violence.”

    For DaRosa, substance abuse in the Mass. and Cass area has long been a problem for him and his Pop Warner program. “I had 300 kids on my football program, and the last season I had, I was barely able to get 30 kids on the field,” he said, citing parents’ concerns with substance abuse on the Clifford Park field in Roxbury. 

    He noted that a 9-year-old player from the Pop Warner program was pricked by a hypodermic needle while running laps in 2022.

    For 15 years, DaRosa has tried in his own way to alleviate the issue by picking up needles throughout Clifford Park and in and around Mass. and Cass.

    In 2020, he moved to raise awareness about the issue by dumping used hypodermic needles outside former Gov. Charlie Baker’s home in Swampscott, which resulted in a court order forbidding him to be within 100 yards of Baker’s residence thereafter.

    As mayor, DaRosa says he’d reopen Long Island, a city-owned facility that housed homeless people and offered addiction treatments until 2014, when the bridge to the harbor island was deemed unsafe. A prolonged and ongoing legal battle between Quincy and Boston has been one major reason that the island — which is owned by Boston— has not been re-used.

    DaRosa says he doesn’t want to rebuild the bridge. He wants to use boats to ferry people and supplies to the island. “Once someone is on the island,” he said, “there’s no way for them to go get the drugs or the paraphernalia they need.”

    He is also against consumption sites in Boston — except for those on Long Island. 

    Some of his other priorities, DaRosa says, include affordable housing, after-school programs and resources for students, public safety initiatives that address illegal substance distribution and gun violence, and direct communication with Immigration Customs and Enforcement. 

    “Wu has no input on how ICE comes into the city,” he said. “They just do what they want to do, and who suffers? Everybody.”

    DaRosa said he wants a more humane detention process for undocumented immigrants. At the same time, he said he believes in prioritizing legal residents and undocumented individuals who are making an effort to obtain legal status.

    “For those who come illegally, we will aid you in finding a way of becoming legal,” he said, “but we’re not going to harbor you, to say, ‘We’re going to hide you among the rest of the people,’ while the rest of the people are the ones taking the collateral damage. That’s not fair to the greater good.”  

    He also offered another point: “I’m the only one on stage that’s an immigrant, remember that. I’m the only one that’s a survivor of BPS. I’m the only one that’s a survivor of gun violence, I’m the only one that has been fighting Mass. and Cass without a political view, just to help the human who’s struggling.”

  • No walls, no limits: LGBTQ+ museum plans to go statewide

    Portraits of Pride exhibition on display at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, 100 Atlantic Ave,, Boston. Photo by Wen Qi

    The Boston LGBTQ+ Museum of Art, History & Culture had a big idea: bring the museum to the people.

    Jean Dolin, a Haitian immigrant raised in Dorchester, got the idea for the museum in 2020 after years working in politics and journalism. The museum doesn’t have a physical space and instead brings exhibits to places around the city, from Boston Common to the Seaport District. But while it lacks a building, Dolin has grand plans for his museum: He wants to take exhibits all across Massachusetts and build a statewide presence within four years.

    “I emerged out of COVID wanting to do the thing that moves me, the thing that I feel like would inspire, would inform, but would also empower,” Dolin said.

    He began with a documentary on the LGBTQ+ community called “Rainbow Tales” but decided it wasn’t reaching enough people.

    “And then something kind of sparked,” Dolin said.

    Inspired by a photography exhibition he’d seen in the streets of Boston, he created “Portraits of Pride,” which is now in its fourth round. The exhibit features 10-foot-tall portrait banners of people who have stood out in their communities. Printed on durable fabric and suspended from custom-built frames, the portraits spotlight leaders and figures in the LGBTQ+ community.

    Above, Susu Wong’s portrait on display at Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park. Photo by Wen Qi

    “So to me, this was a way of saying thank you to all of those who fought for those decades, because I’m a beneficiary of all their work,” Dolin said.

    He held his first “Portraits of Pride” on Boston Common in 2022, and then started raising money so they could keep creating similar projects as part of a formal museum. And it was finally declared as an established institution in October 2023.

    Since that initial exhibit, the museum has held three more: on City Hall Plaza in 2023, in Sea Green in the Seaport in 2024, and the current one in the Connector/Winthrop Center Park.

    The new exhibit contains 20 portraits, photographed by John Huet, including Gretchen Van Ness, executive director of LGBTQ Senior Housing, Paul Glass and Charles Evans, founders of LGBTQ+ Elders of Color, and Jerome Smith, a Dorchester resident who is the senior manager of external affairs at Amazon and Boston’s former chief of civic engagement.

    Arline Isaacson, the board chair of the museum, was featured in the first Pride Legacy Exhibition. “It’s an important recognition of the work that our community has done over the years and especially young folks in our community,” she said.

    Their locations are crucial, Isaacson said. The museum chooses public spaces where all sorts of people walk by. The Winthrop Center faces the Connector building, which holds 4,000 people, including major employers like McKinsey & Co. and Deloitte.

    “It’s a great way to honor people,” said Aadya Gadkari, a solutions engineering analyst at Deloitte.

    On Wednesday the museum opened a new exhibit, a collaboration between the two artistically renowned cousins, Paul Firmin, a queer Haitian artist widely known as KINI, and Rejeila Firmin, the exhibition’s curator, as the artist in residence. The exhibition is at the Pryde Gallery, at 59 Harvard Ave. in Hyde Park. Inside the LGBTQ+ senior housing building, with which they have been partnering since last year.

    “I think I’m also excited that this is a Haitian queer artist that is doing it,” Dolin said. “There is a very long history of homophobia in Haiti. So that’s easy for these two identities to be held in one body. ”

    KINI is known for his lively, colorful paintings, but he decided to work in black and white for this exhibit to symbolize good and evil, and grays to represent the blurry lines in life. His goal was to blur the lines between the past, present and future.

    “Create a place where a kind of everything can exist,” KINI said, “and there’s like no objectivity really, and it’s just, that’s why I call it the void, because I feel like anything can happen in a void.”

    The exhibition will be up until mid-September, and then will be followed by another, Dolin said.

    In addition to “Portraits of Pride,” the museum commemorated 20 years of marriage equality in May 2024 at the State House and partnered with LGBTQ+ Senior Housing to create the Pryde Gallery. It also hosted the weeklong Queer Arts Festival last October and organized a National Coming Out Day celebration.

    The museum launched an artist-in-residence program with Rejeila Firmin and plans to introduce a fellowship next year. The first initiative, “Queer Youth Creative Writing & Poetry,” will recruit high school seniors and college freshmen in Greater Boston to develop their writing.

    The museum’s 2026 project is still in the works, but it plans to have a commemoration of the United States’ 250th birthday in the spring, and then travel with it through the whole state in 2027 and 2028.

    “So at that point, we’re going to be evolving the name of the institution from Boston LGBTQ to Massachusetts LGBTQ,” Dolin said, “because ultimately, we’re telling the history of the state, and we want to go and evolve into a statewide institution.”