RECLAIM PRIDE: QUEER LIBERATION MARCH - JUNE 30, 2019

June 28, 2019 10:03 PM

A 30 minute video by Reclaim Pride NYC about why they're having a non-corporate, people's march reclaiming Pride for the people and replicating the route of the original Pride march a year after the Stonewall Uprising.

If I were in NYC, I'd be going to this.

posted by hippybear (21 comments total)

And how many other cities have the same corporate / cop
co-optation of the community (and corresponding pushback)? St. Louis for one.
posted by dragonian at 10:53 PM on June 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

I got invited to attend this by a sweet older lesbian before a screening of Paris is Burning at Film Forum last week. Didn't have the heart to tell her I was not categorically positioned to reclaim Pride.
posted by praemunire at 12:06 AM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

Capitol Hill in Seattle was ALIVE tonight. Happy Queer Revolution.
posted by nikaspark at 1:38 AM on June 29, 2019 [7 favorites]

We have to show up for each other.
posted by nikaspark at 1:39 AM on June 29, 2019 [5 favorites]

Awesome!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 3:23 AM on June 29, 2019

And how many other cities

I have the great fortune to have had some miniscule involvement with Pride In Protest here, which is full of good people and seeks to restore meaning to the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras.

No conservatives / No cops / No corporations
posted by AnhydrousLove at 4:52 AM on June 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

Here in Lansing, Michigan, we have a "Pride Festival" that is run like the many music festivals that alsoare held in the Old Town neighborhood: the streets are closed off completely, and everybody has to pay $10 for a wristband to get in. This year, the organizers said there would be no uniformed police presence inside the festival, but, as it turns out, the police actually had a recruiting booth staffed by uniformed cops.

An alternative, free, self-run "People's Pride" happened this year. I wasn't able to go to either, but people who were at People's Pride said they had a great time and it was pretty successful. I don't know how many people were there. I was very glad there was an alternative—if we were to go to pride, and take all of four of our children, not one of whom identifies as cishet (including the youngest, 11, who recently came out to us as thinking he's either bi or gay), it would cost the family $60 for the privilege. It's a really unfortunate direction the organizers have taken it in.
posted by Orlop at 5:52 AM on June 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

This is very important especially when the Stonewall Inn does things like hang a straight pride flag along with every other flag outside, or when a black trans woman tries to speak at Stonewall about how she is frustrated that so little attention was paid by those there to the death of Black trans women This year, only to be cheered up by many in the audience and the temps being called to have a mic take away or to call the police on her.
posted by ShawnStruck at 7:45 AM on June 29, 2019 [6 favorites]

OK, AutoCorrect acted really weird and I was having connection issues so I missed the edit window. What that last part should’ve said was she was cheered by the audience and there were attempts to call the police on her
posted by ShawnStruck at 7:55 AM on June 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

I just want to add that Trans Pride in Seattle last night was exactly what Pride should be, and it was glorious and wonderful. (Also nikaspark is awesome to hang out with!)

I live like a ten-minute walk from Pridefest on Sunday, and...it's ten minutes, it's free, and the nice grocery store will be on my way back? I've historically had...mixed...feeling about Pride, and I might go for a bit just to get the vibe and see where Corporate Pride is at these days. But the weird, wonderful, people-led Pride of last night was soul-feeding.
posted by kalimac at 9:01 AM on June 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

NYC DSA will be marching in Reclaim Pride’s March this Sunday, Sheridan square to central park’s great lawn
posted by The Whelk at 10:13 AM on June 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

Denver's Coors Light Ntieth Annual Pride Parade and Celebration was an unabashed celebration of corporate white-cultural dominance that I experienced as a transmisogynist hellscape.. I've been going through a lot of cptsd stuff so I try to hold space for distorted perceptions and everything but I'm definitely sure there's a lot of room for improvement.

Overheard amongst the throng: "I want to see what Wal-Mart is doing this year but I don't want to push through all the people!" *snort*

Last year our Dyke March tried to recruit me during planning, which ended up being a decidedly not-good experience. I felt that they wanted my identity, but not so much my experience or viewpoint. They were really gung-ho about getting cops as speakers when they had stage time, I was not.

so yeah, this is my discombobulated way of saying YES PLEASE we need more of this, thank you!
posted by polyhedron at 10:20 AM on June 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

I'm in SF, which has one of the most corporate pride celebrations in the country. I heard people on NPR thursday night talking about how, during early Pride's there weren't barriers on the street, that you could move easily from observing to participating, but now you have to be IN the parade to take part.

So Google's employees or whatever (SF Pride didn't boot them, despite a petition from some google employees over YouTube not taking down Crowder's videos) get to march, but people who aren't part of an organization effectively can't.

I'm also struck by SF's Pride's response to that petition. “As we commemorate the roots of our movement in resistance, we also understand that San Francisco Pride has become synonymous with the values of inclusion and acceptance,” the statement reads. “In the spirit of community and growth, we confirm Google as a continued participant in the 2019 SF Pride Parade."

Apparently it's important to include a corporation, but ok to have barriers that prevent regular lgbtq+ people from participating.

I still find SF Pride deeply meaningful and moving, to be surrounded by people like me, to come together with friends, but that doesn't mean that I don't think there's something wrong. If there is something like this in SF I haven't heard of it.
posted by gryftir at 12:02 PM on June 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

Spokane had 27,000 people turn out for the parade this year, a remarkable difference from the first Pride we went to here in 2004, which was an unpermitted sidewalk-only march that went maybe a half-mile and then scattered afterward because there was no official parade or gathering permit. The following year it was decided to incorporate a civic Pride organization and 2005 was the first year with a parade permit and a gathering which included political speeches on the lawn of the City Hall. It's grown every year since then and this year was the first year there were observers along the entire downtown parade route instead of there being some bare spots along the way.

There were corporations being represented in the parade, but they weren't floats. There were hardly any floats. The parade was basically all people marching behind banners. A lot of different groups from community radio stations to a lot of the open and affirming churches to social organizations to service agencies. But also it seemed that WalMart had local gay employees marching. As did Starbucks. And others. They didn't seem to be sponsorship deals, but instead were paid slots marching just like everyone else. It felt just right, really. The parade itself took 45 minutes to pass by, which was a bit astonishing given what it had been just 15 years ago.

No barriers. I knew someone in the parade and walked out to say hello for a few moments while they marched by. People were joining friends in the parade at any point if they wanted, and the end of the parade was a call for everyone to join in on the street and walk along and show their presence.

The whole event has felt like a gathering of fellow spirits of all shades and hues every year we've gone, which has been every year since we moved here. I hope it continues to grow and manages to keep it feeling like a joyous community event.
posted by hippybear at 12:22 PM on June 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

The pride parade in Toronto has barriers now, which it didn't in 1996 when I first went. But they need them: there are five times (or more?) as many people watching.

And anyone can be in the Pride Parade who wants to be: frankly, the Toronto Bisexual Network spends weeks trying to convince people to join us and we're the only bi/pan group in the whole parade. We take all comers. Just about any of the non-profit groups are happy to have you join them. I know that my synagogue was also looking for marchers.

We had 115 marchers this year - up from about 15-20 at World Pride in 2014. I couldn't march this year due to a medical issue, but I was so happy to see them all.
posted by jb at 3:01 PM on June 29, 2019

Queer Liberation is a labor issue
posted by The Whelk at 3:33 PM on June 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

Salon article: On the 50th anniversary of Stonewall, activists seek to "Reclaim Pride" from corporations and police
posted by hippybear at 8:53 AM on June 30, 2019 [1 favorite]

Capitol Hill in Seattle was ALIVE tonight. Happy Queer Revolution.

I am so happy to be queer and living in Seattle. Yeah, today I'm going to the big corporate Pride parade and I'm not gonna hate on it too much because I think there's room for all kinds of Pride celebrations, but I may only be feeling so expansive because I got to be part of the joy and celebration and queer liberation that was Capitol Hill last night. I marched in the Dyke March for the first time and holy hell, was it beautiful. So many different kinds of dyke-adjacent queers, a spirit of solidarity and inclusivity and queerness permeating the air, everyone different but smiling and laughing and chanting with each other over the things we share.

And then we turned onto Broadway and people were on the sidewalks, out of the bars, cheering for us! Just for being and walking down the street proclaiming ourselves! I had a moment of thinking "Ohhhhh THIS is what Pride is!" and it was beautiful.
posted by the sockening at 10:28 AM on June 30, 2019 [4 favorites]

Best signs seen “being gay isn’t a phase but capitalism is” “masturbate and smash the state” and “eat ass and the rich.”
posted by The Whelk at 12:15 PM on June 30, 2019 [3 favorites]

We did a die-in on 23rd representing the at least 17 HIV+ asylum seekers that died in ICE detention and everyone living with HIV that died under the state. We honor them with action. #QueerLiberationMarch
posted by The Whelk at 2:44 PM on June 30, 2019 [3 favorites]

This week's episode of Gay USA has longtime host Andy Humm hosting an hour-long roundtable postmortem on the Queer Liberation March held last weekend. The guests are Reclaim Pride activists Reginald Thomas Brown, M. Ed., Francesca Barjon, Robert Baez, and Bax Pitt.
posted by hippybear at 7:48 PM on July 5, 2019