Joan and Rick Francolini are the parents of a bisexual daughter, Renee, who’s about to marry a transgender man.

They’re also committed social justice advocates who recently organized the first-ever Lower Cape Pride celebration on Cape Cod.

Dubbed, “Unity in Community,” the three-day event, a multi-generational celebration of LGBTQ+ pride, drew hundreds of people to the towns of Orleans and Brewster, Massachusetts in June 2025.

Activities included a parade, an LGBTQ+ community resource fair, musical performances, and an exhibit about the history of drag.

Also featured was a panel discussion on how the LGBTQ+ community can effectively combat the homophobia and transphobia, being fostered today, by many conservative political leaders and media influencers.

As Joan and Rick tell PFLAG Cape Cod’s Rick Koonce in this interview, the couple got the idea for the event after seeing the transformative impact of small-town Pride celebrations in Maine, where their daughter and her fiancé live. They noticed that those events brought visibility, joy, and solidarity to the queer community there.

As committed LGBTQ+ allies, Joan and Rick soon realized that Lower Cape Cod needed a Pride event of its OWN, separate from traditional pride activities staged each year in Provincetown.

Planning Lower Cape Pride quickly became a labor of love for both Joan and Rick, who tapped many elements of their local community to support the event.

Over the course of several months, they brought together neighbors, LGBTQ+ volunteers, local businesspeople, political and civic leaders, artists, musicians, and others to make Lower Cape Pride a crowd-pleasing event -- far exceeding what either Joan or Rick had initially anticipated.

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