We Still Blooming: PrideXtended is Reimagining Liberation for Black Trans Futures

This is an excerpt from the Qwear 2025 Pride Zine. To read the full story, download the digital version for free or support Qwear by ordering a printed copy.

Download Free Order Print ($25)

Pride isn’t a month. It’s a movement.

It’s memory, muscle, and refusal.

It’s how we survived and how we thrive.

And in Massachusetts, PrideXtended, Inc. is making sure that survival turns into so much more.

What started as a viral tweet thread by Mercedes Loving-Manley in 2020—demanding that Black trans lives be centered beyond June—has since transformed into one of the most vital grassroots efforts for Black LGBTQ+ safety and cultural power in the Northeast.

Let’s be clear: PrideXtended isn’t just a nonprofit. It’s a love letter to Black trans futures.

It’s a redistribution machine, an art house, a healing circle, and a political front line—fueled by community, not institutions.

“My walk through life as a Black trans femme artist is rooted in full and total freedom. That means freedom of thought, expression, and personhood. That means rejecting tokenism and top-down systems. That means building care from the bottom up.”

— Mercedes Loving-Manley

From Hashtag to Harvest

When Mercedes first began gathering mutual aid resources during the height of the pandemic, she wasn’t thinking about longevity—she was thinking about survival. But survival begets vision. And PrideXtended grew fast.

By 2021, the team was launching PrideXtended Fest with the ICA Boston, WBUR, and Boston Center for the Arts—elevating local Black LGBTQ+ artists, redistributing funds, and creating stages where there were once only sidelines. By 2023, they were premiering the Transformative Media Series, a monthly cultural lab celebrating Black queer and trans storytelling through film, music, writing, and performance.

With just hustle and heart, PrideXtended raised over $1,300 in two weeks to cover gender-affirming medical needs. No institutional backing. No corporate sponsorship. Just community.

They now average $10,778/year in redistributed aid, with microgrants covering urgent needs like housing, food, transportation, and wellness.

A Space to Just Be

In a world where Black trans femmes are policed even when doing nothing but existing, PrideXtended is building something rare: a space where existence is enough.

“You can read a book on the dance floor. You can scream or cry or dance or nap. You can just be—without explanation, without performance, without fear.”

This isn’t just programming. This is restoration. This is how we imagine freedom.

The vision? A permanent, accessible, community space equipped for rest, art, organizing, and joy. A space with heating that works, with ramps and soft chairs, with exits clearly marked. Because comfort is political. And access is love.

PrideXtended began as a hashtag—a call to value Black trans lives beyond Pride Month. What inspired you to turn that into a full-fledged organization, and what shifted in your vision along the way?

What fueled me then is what continues to fuel me today–necessity. According to a 2024 report by the Human Rights Campaign, “74.8% of Black LGBTQ+ youth and 78.2% of Black transgender and gender-expansive youth have experienced racism in the LGBTQ+ community”... As a Black transgender woman, I am well aware of the obstacles often faced when trying to obtain basic resources like housing and food. After the response to our initial call to the community, it’s evident that there is a constant need. Visibility, in my opinion, has done nothing other than increase the risks of violence faced by Black LGBTQ+ folks, especially trans folks. 

You often describe intersectionality as a survival strategy, not a buzzword. How do your experiences as a Black trans femme shape the way you lead, organize, and build community care?

Navigating this work as a Black trans woman gives me the ability to see the people I support through a specific lens. This lens, informed by my lived experience and my professional experience as an artist and organizer, is one rooted in care. It’s crucial for me to be tender with people and to not replicate the systems and institutions that have (historically) discarded and violated people like me. For example, when building and implementing applications for programs such as our emergency assistance microgrants, it is imperative that we only inquire about things that are absolutely necessary for us to know. We try not to create a space of surveillance for the folks we serve. We don’t believe in making marginalized people “cut themselves and bleed out,” so to speak, in order to be supported by us. It does not take all that. To us, the need in and of itself is all the information we need in order to adequately support people. 

This is an excerpt from the Qwear 2025 Pride Zine. To read the full story, download the digital version for free or support Qwear by ordering a printed copy.

Download Free Order Print ($25)