Pride Parade mourns loss of longtime leader

"Not on her parade, not on her people," her sister, Joanie Woodward, said during an onstage tribute to the legendary activist at the festival held at City Hall Plaza after the parade.

Woodward, known for the trademark rainbow-colored Mohawk she would sport for the parade, died yesterday morning at age 64 of ovarian cancer, only hours before the festivities she loved and often helped lead. Woodward became an iconic figure in Boston's gay community through her years of work for organizations focusing on HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and other causes. In recognition of her outreach, Mayor Thomas M. Menino declared June 7, 2008, Woody Woodward Day during the city's pride week last year.

"It's only fitting that she would die on Pride Day; she loved this day. She called it the high holiday for gay people," said Daryll Drew, who drove her motorcycle in this year's parade with fellow members of Moving Violations, a women's bike club Woodward helped found in the 1980s.

In a statement yesterday, Menino said Woodward was missed at the parade but she would have been proud of the large turnout.

"She was more than just a champion for equality," he said. "She knew how to inspire others to get involved."

In the past, Woodward and the motorcycle group would lead the pride marches through the city's downtown. Woodward treasured the day because it celebrates gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender identities and allows people to feel comfortable with who they are, her friends said.

Thousands watched this year's parade, which winded through the city's downtown and ended at City Hall. Among the marchers were Menino and Governor Deval Patrick, with his wife and two daughters, including his daughter Katherine, who told her parents she was gay in the summer of 2007, just three weeks after her father successfully won a battle against a measure to ban gay marriage. Bands played, music blared from loudspeakers, people tooted noisemakers, and some passed out multicolored beads and fliers as the lively procession made its way through the streets.

Celebrating the diversity in the gay community and unity among different cultures keeps Tai Jun of Dorchester coming back to the parade, he said.

"This is about finding pride in yourself and realizing that your experience is directly similar to someone else, that you are not alone," said Jun, an organizer with Reflect and Strengthen, a nonprofit group that works with city youth.

Kim Thurlow, her partner, Kristy Moen, and their 12-year-old daughter, Jessica Thurlow, have been coming to the city's parade from New Hampshire for the past five years. They're excited, Kim said, because their state just passed a law allowing gay marriage.

The Boston pride march allows them to celebrate the many victories for gay rights in recent years.

"I want my daughter to grow up in the kind of environment where she will see her parents are supported," she said.

Although the LGTBQ community has seen some success in the battle for equal rights, 22-year-old Paul Sousa of Cambridge said a lot more still needs to be done. Events such as yesterday's allow people to unite and feel comfortable coming out, said Sousa, co-chair of Join the Impact MA.

"I think we need to be proud in a time when gay people are so discriminated against," he said.

But amid the festivities, some mourned.

"Ever since I came to pride, she was always one of the first persons to lead the parade. She was one of the best volunteers, always doing the most arduous work," said Pierce Durkin, clerk for Boston Pride's board of directors.

Durkin, along with other volunteers, heard about Woodward's death as they were setting up yesterday morning. It was tough not to see her there, he said.

"Because the pride parade has such an emotional connection and because she always headed the parade, her loss really hit close to home," Durkin said.

Some of the women in Moving Violations had known Woodward since the 1970s. Loocie Brown, one of the members, recalled how Woodward took her on her first bike ride in Gloucester during November.

"It was so cold, but she just said, 'Just hang on sis and don't bang on my helmet,' " Brown chuckled.

Wherever she traveled, Woodward would take her motorcycle, her friends said. She drove a dirt bike from North Vietnam to Cambodia, across the Saharan desert, and in places throughout Australia. She taught English in China and worked as an archeologist in Peru.

And she was well-known and admired in the gay community throughout New York and Boston, Brown said. She was featured in Spirit magazine last month as one of the top 10 people to meet in Boston.

Before yesterday's parade, Moving Violations members drove by Woodward's home and stopped to pay their respects. They participated in the parade despite their loss, because that is what Woodward would have wanted, they said. After the march, all of the women in the bike club and in Motor Maids, another women's bike club Woodward had been a part of, gave short speeches on stage honoring their longtime friend.

"She's off on the great adventure," Brown said. "She's leading us all to the next chapter."