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Reclaim Pride Coalition

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Reclaim Pride Coalition
Formation2019
TypeGrassroots, political, LGBT
PurposeProtest against commercialized Pride events
Websitereclaimpridenyc.org

Reclaim Pride Coalition is a coalition of LGBT groups and individuals that initially gathered in New York City in 2019 to create the Queer Liberation March in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots and to protest the commercialization of LGBT Pride events. The following year, in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, the coalition organized the Queer Liberation March for Black Lives & Against Police Brutality.[1][2]

History

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"We Resist" banner at the Queer Liberation March in New York City in 2019

The Reclaim Pride Coalition was created to gather members of the extended LGBT community, especially those most at its fringes – such as gender nonconforming individuals, queer youth of color, drag queens, sex workers, and radical lesbians – who seek to march in honor of the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall riots that effectively started the gay rights movement in the United States in 1969. It planned the Queer Liberation March in New York City on June 30, 2019, from the Stonewall Inn, up Sixth Avenue, to Central Park for a rally on the Great Lawn.

The main concern of the coalition was to protest against a perceived lack of activism increasingly present in the corporate-sponsored floats and police-lined streets in the general celebratory NYC Pride March[3] that is an annual tradition coordinated by organization Heritage of Pride.[4] The Reclaim Pride Coalition believes that removing corporate sponsors and the police presence will better connect the march itself to the people, especially those who are believed to be excluded by the heavily sponsored, and much larger, World Pride parade.[5][6]

The result was a second, activist-oriented pride march, the Queer Liberation March, which was held on the same day as the NYC Pride March to mark the 50th Anniversary of Stonewall.[7][8] The Queer Liberation March encouraged anyone to march without prior registration.[9]

Reclaim Pride UK

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The Reclaim Pride movement has also reached the LGBT community in the UK[10] and is seeing strong support, especially in London,[11] Manchester,[12] Glasgow, and Brighton,[13] where Reclaim Pride groups are visibly challenging organizers that run Pride money-making events, where many in the communities have no actual input to the events themselves.[14][15][16] Their strong support of Stonewall and the belief that "Pride is Freedom, and Freedom is Free" motivates these coalitions.

In Scotland, the Unite trade union's LGBT committee blasted the charges imposed on organizations taking part in Glasgow's 2019 Pride event and took aim at big companies using the event merely to "enhance their customer reach".[17] As such, they boycotted the event and encouraged other sections of the local gay community to do likewise. Describing Pride as a protest, Unite Scotland's LGBT committee wrote:

The Pride movement started as a riot 50 years ago this year at Stonewall Inn and as we remember this, we remember those we have lost and also celebrate the gains we have made. Yet, for some large commercial organizations, support for LGBT equality merely extends to paying a fee for a Pride March or temporary rainbow branding to enhance their customer reach. Once Pride season is over, there is no wider benefit to the LGBT community. We hear nothing about what is happening in our communities, about rising intolerance and hate crime, and the violence being perpetrated against LGBT+ citizens of our country. When people are abused and beaten for being themselves, the response from Pride is deafening in its silence. The politics has been driven from Pride by over-commercialisation and greed of those involved in making it ever more commercial for financial gain.'[17]

Reclaim Pride in Brighton self describe as "An independent autonomous affinity group[18] for radical pride actions, Queer Unity, Mutual Aid and protest movements[19]", expressing Queer Anarchist[20] politics in their 'Reclamation Zine'[21] and have performed year-round anti-capitalist projects including a 'Free Store'.[22][23] They have also hosted multiple demonstrations[24] on LGBT issues such as perceived transphobia by the BBC.[25] The group takes a Republican view of the British Monarchy[26]

In September 2022, Reclaim Pride Brighton announced plans to protest an event organized by activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull.[27]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Manzella, Sam (2020-06-26). "How the March Gets Made: Reclaim Pride Organizers Share Their Wisdom". LOGO News. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  2. ^ Schulman, Michael. "A Radical Challenger to New York City's Pride March". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  3. ^ Zane, Zachary (2019-05-15). "How the Queer Liberation March Wants to Bring Pride Back to Its Activist Roots". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
  4. ^ Assunção, Muri. "LGBTQ activists plan an alternative march to celebrate 50 years of Stonewall". nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
  5. ^ "This Grassroots Group Is Planning an Alternative Pride March | NewNowNext". www.newnownext.com. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
  6. ^ "Sponsors". NYC Pride. Archived from the original on 2018-02-18. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
  7. ^ Silvers, Mara; WNYC (15 May 2019). "LGBTQ Group Plans Alternative 'Queer Liberation March' On Pride Day". Gothamist. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
  8. ^ "Two marches set to highlight New York City's Pride events". Washington Blade: Gay News, Politics, LGBT Rights. 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2019-05-25.
  9. ^ Gaffney, Emma. "Reclaiming the Revolutionary Spirit of Stonewall at the Queer Liberation March". The Indypendent. The Indypendent. Retrieved 2019-07-11.
  10. ^ "What Is Reclaim Pride? The Grassroots Movement For Queer Liberation". The Commoner. 2021-10-10. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  11. ^ UK Black Pride
  12. ^ Manchester Pride has 'dumbed down', says gay group
  13. ^ "'Be ungovernable' - Reclaim Pride protesters march through Brighton". The Argus. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  14. ^ Brighton Pride 'is a rainbow-plastered event for straight people'
  15. ^ Letter to the editor: Outrage over the disabled not being able to see Kylie Minogue
  16. ^ Trans Pride Brighton
  17. ^ a b Unite to boycott Pride Glasgow over 'over-commercialisation' 16 August 2019
  18. ^ "Affinity group", Wikipedia, 2022-05-09, retrieved 2022-09-15
  19. ^ "🏳⚧🏴 (@reclaimpridebrighton) • Instagram photos and videos". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  20. ^ "Queer anarchism", Wikipedia, 2022-04-24, retrieved 2022-09-15
  21. ^ "Reclaim Your Queer Fucking Life!". The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  22. ^ "Give-away shop", Wikipedia, 2022-08-20, retrieved 2022-09-15
  23. ^ "🏳⚧🏴 on Instagram: "When the hobbyists, careerists and reformists leave the streets after protests, after marketable spectacle, and after opportunity for them to profiteer, we're still here. A year of committed mutual aid, organising ourselves as local people, and building alternatives to the capitalist statist power structure. On the free store's first birthday we marked the occasion by writing some letters and drawing art for anarchist prisoners as part of the callout for international week of solidarity. Solidarity not charity means our projects and struggles being inherently intertwined. To many more years of the free store! 🖤💘"". Instagram. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  24. ^ Reclaim Pride Brighton [@reclaimpridebtn] (2022-04-18). "This weekend our Queer community showed up for a demonstration to resist the state's violent conversion therapy bill! We will always defend ourselves against state sanctioned death! Thank you to everyone who contributed to and attended the protest! https://t.co/qMy6bCRYzW" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2022-09-15. Retrieved 2022-12-04 – via Twitter.
  25. ^ "Transphobia protest outside BBC offices in city centre". The Argus. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  26. ^ "'Only pride in monarchy is watching it die' - activists in republic call after Queen death". The Argus. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
  27. ^ "Police step in amid safety fears ahead of 'transphobic' speaker visit". The Argus. Retrieved 2022-09-15.
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