|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Traci Welch distinctly remembers when a New England-based neo-Nazi organization, NSC-131, interrupted a drag story hour at the Taunton Public Library in January 2023. The neo-Nazis surrounded her and the families attending.
When one neo-Nazi told a father that he was raising a pedophile, Welch stood her ground, and told the father, “I got you, turn around. I got you … Worry about your wife. Worry about your baby.”
Welch, a prominent figure in the South Coast’s LGBTQ+ community has since won accolades for her advocacy and community building. But this moment in front of neo-Nazis was pure instinct.
“Now dumba** me is standing between two [NSC-131] men, and I’m like a big wide gal, and I’m just standing there, like, ‘Not on my watch today! Not happening. No.’”
Welch said the encounter didn’t deter her.
When asked how long she planned to continue her work, Welch replied, “Till I die. It’s not gonna end until it ends.” Following the event, The South Coast LGBTQ+ Network, the event’s organizers, supplied counseling to the children present.
Welch’s volunteer work first began in the early 1990s assisting Cape Cod Pride after she came out. She later left to work in the South Coast, where she became a founding member of The South Coast LGBTQ+ Network, serving for over a decade as the planning committee chair and secretary before leaving in 2022. Welch organized many LGBTQ+ events with The Network over the years, such as New Bedford Pride, South Coast Pride in Taunton, and the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.
DATMA, a local arts organization, recognized Welch as a Massachusetts LGBTQ+ trailblazer earlier this year, displaying a placard of accomplishments at Gallery X that read: “Her commitment to advocacy and community engagement has significantly advanced LGBTQIA+ rights and awareness across the South Coast region.”
Welch’s response? “You just never expect the accolades, but when they come, I’ll be more than glad to take that.”
Welch, an event planner, can often be found at The Gallery Bar, where she is “wicked” involved in the bar and South Coast’s LGTBQ community, she said. Her event planning helps to create visibility and excitement within her community. And the bar, which recently reopened in September after a 13-month closure, is a frequent spot for gatherings.
Initially opened in 1982 as a lesbian-oriented bar called Le Place, the bar became a space for the entire LGBTQ+ community following the 2006 attack at Puzzle’s Lounge, a gay bar for men in New Bedford. “[After the attack], they tried to make it work. But … it never reopened,” Welch said about Puzzle’s, which was briefly rebranded to The Rainbow’s End.
Le Place was sold in 2023. Eventually the bar was able to reopen as The Gallery Bar, but it took 14 months to obtain its liquor license, only getting it this March. The normal approval time for liquor licenses is six to eight weeks, according to the City of New Bedford.
Welch and the bar’s co-owner, Jes Fritze, credit City Council President Shane Burgo and their lawyer, former mayor Scott Lang, for getting their liquor license. In an Instagram post celebrating Burgo’s birthday, The Gallery wrote, “From the very start, Shane was there — advocating for us at City Hall, helping us navigate the process of getting our liquor license, and proving that real change happens when someone in office truly listens.”
“It was a long process,” said Fritze. “It wasn’t easy. Obviously, we did it for our community so we could all be back together.”
Welch described the importance of the community having this space reopened. “It’s important to have a home when you get married, or you’re having a hard time in your life,” said Welch. “Christmas Eve and Thanksgiving [are] the busiest days here. Nobody wants to see their family because they’re not welcoming.”
Reflecting on the Massachusetts LGBTQ+ community’s progress over the past 30 years, Welch said, “Sometimes I see so many great things. Sometimes I’m like, ‘Really! We’re still doing that?!’”
“When I go by and see somebody with rainbow glasses on,” said Welch. “When I go to the mall, and I see two girls or two young boys holding hands. I’m like, our generation was able to help with that. We couldn’t do that 30-40 years ago.”
Welch recalled one story where she helped a group of newcomers connect with regulars at The Gallery Bar. She said, “I came to the bar one day and some new lesbians were playing pool, and the older lesbians were at the bar. And I’m like, ‘Hey guys, who were they?’”
“We don’t know ‘em,” said the regulars.
“Why don’t you say hi?” Welch chimed back.
“Nobody said hi to us when we first got here.”
“Break the cycle!” Welch said. “So I go over to the young ladies like, ‘Hey, I’m Traci!’ … and so everybody’s hanging out, everybody’s got a beer, everybody’s playing pool.”
“We need to make it easier for the next group,” She added, “We got to break that cycle. Make it easier for somebody else.”
Recalling a moment after New Bedford Pride at The Gallery Bar a few years ago, then Le Place, Welch said, “A friend of mine came up and said, ‘I just had to leave Pride. I was so upset … I saw these kids have the time of their life, and they were having a ball. And I looked down, and one girl had cuts all down her leg,’” referring to visible self-harm wounds. The friend continued, “I thought that these were adult problems. I didn’t know that our kids go through these things.”
Welch replied that, on that day, that young girl “was having the time of her life [at Pride]. She wasn’t cutting today.”
Along with event planning, Welch worked as an adviser at New Bedford Alliance of Gay & Lesbian Youth (NB-AGLY) center in downtown New Bedford until its closing in 2022. Volunteering with this group helped Welch open up about herself.
She described an activity, where participants stuck a note on a wall about something that happened to them. “Well, I was sexually assaulted as an adult, and that’s the first time I ever said it. Because my kids gave me the strength.” Welch said that at first she broke down and ran out of the room.
She continued, “I would not have been able to do that without them. They support me and I support them.”
Zakary Sarkarati is a summer intern with The New Bedford Light, as part of the South Coast Internship designed for local students.
Keep up the great work. We need your voice and spirit
Great work Traci love working with you keep up the good work your forever friend Linda Spinner
Amazing! May God give you strength to keep up the good you do. It’s time we all accept each other. Treat everyone as if it were a brother, sister, mother, father, aunt, uncle, etc. Everyone has something in their lives I’m sure that someone else can’t tolerate. We all have something. Worst is families that claim they support yet make fun and bash them when they are not around. Such as some of my family that I now call, by blood only. They are eliminated, they judge and are the worst offenders. 2 of them are teachers. That fake face in front and that nasty attitude behind. God sees all. I treat everyone the same. Those who treat others bad and I witness it are those I don’t deal with. They will be judged by the man who counts!
Thank you Traci, for all you do to help to make the South Coast better!