ACTIVISM
Reclaim Pride Pitches Second March, New Route
Alt event planned to travel from Midtown to West Village for Washington Square rally
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
The group that organized
the 2019 Queer Liberation
March and a rally
in Central Park is seeking
permits for a another march
this year with a rally in Washington
Square Park and a week-long
series of events that it hopes to
produce on two piers in the West
Village in Hudson River Park.
“We think it’s important we do
this again, that we continue to provide
this space for people to come
together and have a true community
march to be able to express
these values and work on these issues,”
said Ann Northrop, a member
of the Reclaim Pride Coalition,
during the group’s January 29
town hall meeting.
Last year, the Coalition marked
the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall
riots, which are seen as marking
the start of the modern LGBTQ
rights movement, with a march
that mirrored the route taken by
the 1970 march, the fi rst to commemorate
the riots. The march began
in the West Village and went
up Sixth Avenue to Central Park.
Unlike the 1970 rally, which was
held in the Sheep Meadow, the 2019
rally was held on the Great Lawn.
Organizers estimated that 45,000
people participated last year.
This year’s march, which will
commemorate the 50th anniversary
of the fi rst march, would begin
on 40th Street between Fifth and
Sixth Avenues. Marchers would
head west to Eighth Avenue then
south to Christopher Street then
east to Washington Square Park.
They hope to step off at 11:00 a.m.
on the last Sunday in June.
The route avoids using any part
of the route that Heritage of Pride
(HOP), the group that produces
New York City’s far larger Pride Parade
and related events. The HOP
march always begins at noon on
the last Sunday in June. In recent
years, the HOP march has used
Christopher Street only between
Sixth and Seventh Avenues. The
Coalition march would turn south
when it reaches Christopher Street
The proposed route for the 2020 Reclaim Pride Coalition’s Queer Liberation March, scheduled for June
28.
The 2019 Queer Liberation March as it headed uptown toward Central Park, the same day that Heritage
of Pride’s LGBTQ March took a route from Midtown down to the Village and then north to Chelsea.
and Seventh Avenue from the west
to skip the block of Christopher
used by HOP as it proceeds east to
the park.
“We would certainly be close
to HOP but our intention is to
stay south of them, not coincide,”
Northrop wrote in an email. “That’s
our proposal. We’ll see what the
city says, but we’re confi dent we’ll
work out something safe and acceptable
RECLAIM PRIDE COALITION
to everyone.”
PHOTO DONNA ACETO
The Coalition is negotiating with
the NYPD, which issues parade
permits, and other city agencies
that would have to sign off.
“They’re actually saying, ‘This
looks like it will not be a problem,’”
Northrop said at the town hall.
In the week prior to the march,
Coalition members want to “Queer
the Pier.” Their intention is to use
two piers in Hudson River Park in
the West Village to stage events
and art installations and make
resources available to community
members who may need help or
support. All events will be free and
open to the public.
“This year we’re going to take
back the piers,” one member said
during the January 29 town hall.
Coalition members are currently
meeting with representatives from
the Hudson River Park Trust, which
administers the park, and negotiating
access to the two piers.
“We have three weeks to make a
plan,” another member said. “The
next three weeks are an open community
design process.”
While most of the contingents
in the HOP march are community
groups and non-profi ts, the sponsors
and large corporate contingents
can afford to pay for a larger
presence with fl oats and large
groups of marchers. Some can buy
a position toward the front of the
parade.
The complaints from some community
members about the corporate
contingents in the HOP march
are longstanding. In 2017, activists
demanded a resistance contingent
in the parade in response to
Donald Trump winning the White
House.
While they were successful, the
negotiations with HOP were seen as
unnecessarily diffi cult and drawn
out. Some activists were already
demanding a separate march that
year.
In 2018, activists again sought
space for a resistance contingent
and again felt that HOP was unresponsive.
In anticipation of the far
larger crowd that HOP knew would
appear in 2019, HOP in 2018 tested
limits on the headcount allowed in
contingents and required marchers
to wear wristbands. Both of
those actions angered activists.
The 2019 Queer Liberation
March represented activists’ desire
to express an entirely different
message from the one expressed
by the HOP event. It was explicitly
political, more clamorous, and
much shorter.
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