➤ QUEER LIB MARCH, from p.4
inexcusable. There needs to be accountability.”
A statement from the march
organizers stated, “Marchers had
conducted a huge and universally
acclaimed event, marching from
Foley Square north on Sixth Avenue,
around the Stonewall Inn and
back east to Washington Square
Park. But as they were entering
the park, an NYPD offi cer stepped
forward to arrest a marcher (reason
unknown and the NYPD won’t
say), and a crowd gathered to object,
chanting, ‘Let him go.’ Suddenly,
a large crowd of NYPD offi -
cers rushed in and attacked with
pepper spray. All that did was increase
the crowd yelling at them to
‘go home,’ while marchers nursed
their pepper spray wounds. One
NYPD member reached out to slam
a woman on a bicycle to the ground.
Other marchers were punched and
violently shoved.”
Jake Tolan, one of the march
organizers, said, “I wish that I
could say what I saw today was
shocking, but how could I reasonably
expect anything else from the
NYPD? Fifty-ones years after the
Stonewall Rebellion, the NYPD is
still responding to peaceful, powerful,
righteous queer joy with pepper
spray, batons, and handcuffs.
Thank you, Commissioner Shea
and the entire NYPD, for continuing
to show us why you should be
abolished.”
The NYPD has not responded to
Gay City News’ request for comment.
This year’s march was organized
by the Reclaim Pride Coalition
(RPC), which produced the 2019
Queer Liberation March and Rally
that drew a sharp contrast with
the march produced by Heritage
of Pride (HOP), also known as NYC
Pride. It had no corporate sponsors
and featured explicitly political
messages. The RPC march last
year drew an estimated 45,000
participants who later rallied on
the Great Lawn in Central Park.
Last year’s HOP March, which was
the customary mix of prominent
corporate sponsors and hundreds
of community groups, drew millions.
That march was produced in
tandem with WorldPride, an event
staged in different cities around
the globe every several years.
The 2019 RPC march, which
A march participant wiping pepper spray from his eyes near Washington Square.
One marcher carried a reminder that the iconic 1969 Stonewall event was a rebellion against police
harassment of the LGBTQ community.
The direct action group Revolting Lesbians played a visible role in the march.
marked the 50th anniversary of
the 1969 Stonewall riots, took essentially
the same route as the
1970 march, the fi rst to honor the
riots. The 1970 march had a “gayin”
on Central Park’s Sheep Meadow.
While the city cancelled HOP’s
2020 march and that group held a
virtual event on June 28 — with a
handful of brief presentations along
what would have been the parade
route — the RPC announced on
DONNA ACETO
DONNA ACETO
DONNA ACETO
June 4 that it would produce a live
march on June 28.
“RPC’s Queer Liberation March
for Black Lives and Against Police
Brutality will be focused on elevating
and protecting Black Lives,” the
group said in a June 4 press release.
“This moment, the principles
of the 1970 march, and the RPC
founding mission demand it. Black
Americans and their children have
suffered disproportionate abuse
at the hands of America’s white
supremacist power structure. The
most marginalized among Black
Communities, like Trans people,
Immigrants, Disabled people, Deaf
and Hard of Hearing people, and
Neurologically Diverse people live
under an even greater risk for the
worst outcomes within this system.
Inordinate risk calls for urgent
consideration.”
The cancellation of the HOP
event and the RPC’s focus prompted
one marcher to carry a sign that
read “PRIDE isn’t cancelled it’s just
refocused.”
This year’s march featured a
contingent from the Church of
Stop Shopping, led by the Reverend
Billy Talen in his usual pink
suit, with members of the Stop
Shopping Choir dressed in black.
They carried a large icon of the late
Marsha P. Johnson, a known participant
in the 1969 Stonewall riots,
garbed in fl owers and wearing
a crown of fl owers.
“It’s just a funeral, a memorial for
Marsha P. Johnson,” Talen said as
the group made its way up Church
Street to drumming and chanting.
“She’s our leader, our teacher.
We honor her today, these are her
streets.”
A second contingent used 10
large puppets from LGBTQ community
history, including Johnson,
Sylvia Rivera, Stormé DeLarverie,
and Raymond Castro, who is
known to have been arrested during
the 1969 riots at the Stonewall,
as well as a puppet of the Statue of
Liberty.
“These puppets were a labor of
love,” said Christopher Williams,
who was assisted by Evan Woodard
and Cray Caddle. The puppets
were created and built by clients
at the Ali Forney Center, an
organization that serves LGBTQ
homeless youth, and funded by the
Lower Manhattan Cultural Center.
The puppets in the RPC march and
14 others debuted last year during
the HOP march.
Like 2019, the RPC had specifi c
demands.
“We support the demand for at
least a $1 billion cut to the NYPD
budget and a reassignment of those
funds and much more to housing,
healthcare, employment, reparative
and transformative justice,
and other necessities for Black and
other people of color communities,
particularly for Black trans people,”
the group said on June 4.
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