New York LGBT community hosts alternative Pride march
An activist holds a sign during the Queer Liberation March in New York City (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
Members of New York’s LGBT+ community are hosting an alternative, political march with no corporate floats and no police.
The Queer Liberation March, organised by Reclaim Pride Coalition NYC, is taking place on the same day as New York’s Pride Parade, the largest LGBT+ march in the city.
Retracing the steps of the original Christopher Street Liberation Day March of 1970, the Reclaim Pride Coalition will gather in Sheridan Square, march all the way up 6th Avenue, and end with a rally in Central Park’s Great Lawn.
The aim of the Queer Liberation March is to “honour the powerful legacy of the Stonewall Rebellion” by highlighting the most marginalised members of the LGBT+ community.
The organisers posted a statement explaining why they were organising the march on their website.
Activists lie on Sixth Avenue during the Queer Liberation March on June 30, 2019 in New York City (Kena Betancur/Getty Images)
It reads: “We march in our communities’ tradition of resistance against police, state, and societal oppression, a tradition that is epitomised and symbolised by the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion.
“We march against the exploitation of our communities for profit and against corporate and state pinkwashing, as displayed in Pride celebrations worldwide, including the NYC Pride Parade.
“We march in opposition to transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, racism, sexism, xenophobia, bigotry based on religious affiliation, classism, ableism, audism, ageism, all other forms of oppression, and the violence that accompanies them in the US and globally.
Marchers gather during the Queer Liberation March (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
“We march for an end to individual and institutional expressions of hate and violence as well as government policies that deny us our rights and our very lives, from the NYPD to ICE, from the prison industrial complex to state repression worldwide.
“We march to oppose efforts that deny our communities’ rights and that brutally erase queer people worldwide.
“We march against domestic and global neoliberalism and the ascendance of the far right, against poverty and economic inequality, against US military aggression, and against the threat that is climate change.
No police or corporations are present at the Queer Liberation March (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images)
“We march to affirm that healthcare is a right, including treatment for all people with HIV/AIDS worldwide and intensive prevention efforts, and to demand an end to HIV stigma and criminalisation.
“We are trans, bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer, intersex, asexual, two-spirit, non-binary, gender non-conforming + and allies.
“We march to celebrate our communities and history, in solidarity with other oppressed groups, and to demand social and economic justice worldwide—we march for liberation!”
