"For Catholics that are proud to stand in a faith that represents love and community as the priority, I think people should be offended that the bishop is enacting policies that are antithetical to that message," said Josh Croke, with the group Love Your Labels in Massachusetts.

Leaders of Worcester’s LGBTQ+ community have begun to organize against the new policy, said Joshua Croke, president of the Worcester nonprofit Love Your Labels, which supports LGBTQ+ youth.

McManus’ new policies may directly harm young people in Catholic schools, said Joshua Croke, president of the Worcester LGBTQ+ youth nonprofit Love Your Labels.

“We celebrate all bodies, all identities, every experience that has brought every individual into the place in which you are now. We welcome you, we celebrate you — you are beautiful,” Croke, 33, told the crowd. “This is what community looks like and how community is supposed to show up for each other.”

Croke is the influential voice for the LGBTQ+ community across the Central Massachusetts region. As president of Love Your Labels, they lead the Queer Coalition of Greater Worcester and run programming across the area, including Drag Queen Story Time.

“It’s a powerful celebration of community,” Croke said. “The folks that attend and participate are really finding community and building their relationships, which is so empowering and joyful and which is something that we need in days that can be pretty bleak sometimes with all the hate out in the world.”

The statement, credited to Courtney Ross Escobar and Joshua Croke on behalf of the Board of Directors, comes after the group issued an initial statement on July 15, 2022.

Speaking on behalf of Living in Freedom Together (LIFT)’s Board of Directors, Courtney Ross Escobar and Joshua Croke said they are “angry, saddened and disturbed by the heavily redacted Investigation Report: St. John’s Food For The Poor Program And Harrington House that was released yesterday.”

At the press conference, which was held exactly a week before the election, the Queer Coalition’s Joshua Croke said Soucy neither cares for the LGBTQ community or about their humanity.

“The LGBTQ+ community includes students, parents and teachers in the Worcester Public School system, all of whom deserve the respect and support of school officials and access to information that is inclusive of their health and well-being,” Croke said.

FLOQ is a blog about collaborative ideation, collective intelligence, and exploring compelling futures.

Lack of affordable access to the digital tools and resources that support learning burdens low-income students and impedes their economic mobility.

The work Josh does in building up cities and the people that live in them, whether it’s through the placemaking projects of Action! By Design or the advocacy work of Love Your Labels, they move purposefully towards an inclusive and sustainable way of life.

Croke holds a board seat on the Worcester Education Collaborative and is involved with a steering committee and technology subcommittee for the Worcester Public Schools’ strategic plan. Croke is lead organizer for Queer AF: Art & Fashion Show, which brings local and regional collaborators into Worcester to tackle challenges surrounding inclusion in the fashion and entertainment industries, as part of Love Your Labels.

One of Croke’s most recent successes was POW! WOW! Worcester, a week-long international arts festival that saw 14 massive murals from established contemporary artists sprout up all over Worcester, drawing thousands of visitors to the city.