Thousands of people took to the streets of Lower Manhattan on Sunday afternoon, June 28, to join the Reclaim Pride Coalition’s eighth annual Queer Liberation March, reminding New York City that the first pride was a protest, not a parade.
The grassroots march was first held in 2019, on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and the same year that the city hosted World Pride. The march bans the participation of police and corporations. In their place, volunteer marshals held hands to stop traffic and keep the crowd safe.
All queer people are welcome to join in the protest, which kicked off with a rally at Union Square at 3 p.m., before proceeding down Broadway into Foley Square.
“We’re here in solidarity, and to denounce fascism, and to know that queer people all over this nation will rise up and have a better day tomorrow,” trans activist and Tony award-winning costume designer Qween Jean told Gay City News in an interview, before addressing a crowd of marchers.
The theme of this year’s march, “Breaking the Chains of War and Oppression for Trans and Immigrant Rights,” is crucial, because the two are “tethered together and there’s no separation,” said Qween Jean, herself a Haitian immigrant, while proudly waving the flags of Palestine and her home country.
She was particularly concerned by the Supreme Court’s ruling last week stripping legal immigration protection from hundreds of thousands of Haitians in the United States.
Chants heard throughout the afternoon included “Close Delaney Hall!” “Free Them All” — referring to the immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey — and “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”
At a time when LGBTQ people and immigrants are facing near constant attacks, it can be challenging to find hope — but for some participants, the march provided just that.
“It feels really liberating to be able to publicly defy the people who don’t want me to be allowed to be doing what I’m doing right now and to live my life as who I am,” said Katie Fink, who held up a sign reading, “If trans people aren’t hot how do you explain my girlfriend???”
Fink, a trans woman, told Gay City News that she began transitioning less than two years ago, and this is her first time partaking in Pride month as her authentic self. A gamer, she met her girlfriend, who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, playing Minecraft.
“If there are people trying to police how I’m allowed to live my life, there’s a strong part of me that wants to resist against that and come out anyway, and that’s why I’m doing this,” she said, while acknowledging that attacks against trans people are accelerating.
“I love that it stands for liberation for all people, queer people, trans people, gay people, Palestinian people, Black people,” said Denton, participating for their fourth year.
The Rude Mechanical Orchestra added a musical backdrop to the procession, alongside organizations like ACT UP — holding its famous banner “Money for AIDS + Health Care” — and Housing Works.
Marchers from the Judson Memorial Church held up images of queer people from throughout history, who they consider to be “our own saints — people who changed the destiny of queer folks everywhere — Alison Ross told Gay City News. Her saint was Alan Turing, the gay computer science pioneer known for cracking the Nazi Enigma code during World War II.
“This is such a necessary time for the community, for the world to not only see but to be a part of the change and the shift for the future,” Qween Jean said. “It is imperative that we uplift every human life, every immigrant, every trans and queer person that is heavily impacted by this system.”
