Gays Against Guns marched in large numbers.
➤ QUEER LIBERATION MARCH, from p.10
of estimates for the expected crowd in the “tens
of thousands” and one speaker on the rally
stage put the crowd size at 45,000. While that
is likely infl ated, the organizing did produce
a substantial crowd and the march and rally
were unquestionably successful.
The rally featured a mix of speakers whose
messages ranged from uplifting to unrelentingly
negative.
Larry Kramer, the longtime HIV activist,
used a rhetorical device that he fi rst employed
in a speech in the Great Hall at Cooper Union
in 2004 in which he expresses his love for the
LGBTQ community and then is critical.
“I love being gay, I love my people, I think
in many ways we’re better than other people,”
he said while seated in a wheelchair with ACT
UP members standing behind him. “Most gay
people I see appear to have too much time on
their hands. If you have time to get hooked on
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Advocates for sex work decriminalization marched.
drugs and do your endless rounds of sex-seeking
cyber-surfi ng until dawn, you do have too
much time on your hands… If we do not fi ght
back against our enemies, we will continue to
be murdered. But we have a population that is
inept at organizing ourselves… We are not very
good at fi ghting back.”
During Kramer’s speech, a young woman sitting
near Gay City News kept saying, “Get him
off the stage, enough. There are 45,000 people
here. What is he saying?”
Other speakers were more upbeat and
made comments that hewed closer to the day’s
theme.
“We reclaim our movement from the police,
we reclaim our movement from the corporations,
we reclaim our movement from the cis
white men who sit under privilege,” said Jason
Walker, the HIV/ AIDS campaign coordinator
at VOCAL-NY, an HIV activist and services
group.
Cindy Wiesner, the national coordinator of
the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, had a
similar message.
“Today we are reclaiming our revolutionary,
historical fi gures known and unknown,”
she said and listed Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P.
Johnson, Audre Lorde, and other noted fi gures.
“Those who rioted to make space for us to exist,
to be, they did not protest, they did not organize
so we could assimilate.”
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Longtime AIDS activists Drew de los Reyes and Lee Raines holding
up a sign quoting the Daily News headline on the Stonewall Uprising.
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The direct action group Revolting Lesbians.
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Antipathy to the corporate presence in the main march staged by
Heritage of Pride was a common theme of the Queer Liberation
March.
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Larry Kramer delivered a grim message to the crowd at Central
Park.
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Jackie Rudin and Ann Northrop were among the major organizers of
the march and rally.
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Jason Walker, the HIV/ AIDS campaign coordinator at VOCAL-NY,
was among the rally speakers.
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