FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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- click on linked name to email directly -
(RPC) Jay W. Walker (917) 776-4146
(RPC) Jason Rosenberg (631) 332-8990
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RECLAIM PRIDE COALITION RESPONDS TO HERITAGE OF PRIDE ORGANIZERS AND THE NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT’S G.O.A.L.
NEW YORK CITY ANTI-VIOLENCE PROJECT PRAISED FOR #COPSOUTOFPRIDE CAMPAIGN
ACTIVISTS DEMAND CORPORATIONS BE BANNED FROM PRIDE
New York City, May 18, 2021 — Reclaim Pride Coalition, organizers of the “no cops, no corporations, no politicians” annual Queer Liberation March, say “too little, too late” to Heritage of Pride’s plan to temporarily exclude the New York Police Department and its Gay Officers Action League (GOAL) from its Pride Parade. Recent press releases from GOAL and Heritage of Pride (HOP) revealed that from 2022 to 2025, HOP will temporarily ban uniformed law enforcement contingents from marching and reduce the number of police deployed along its parade route. RPC organizers, in the midst of planning their third people's Pride march with zero corporate sponsorship or coordination with the police, are of two minds over the dueling statements: one, cocked-eyebrow amusement at the schism between the two entities responsible for transforming a community-first protest march for liberation into an over-produced, over-policed, barricaded, corporate-sponsored, 12-hour long pinkwashing parade; and two, annoyance at the tone-deaf and clueless nature of both Heritage of Pride and GOAL regarding the damage they have done to the most marginalized in the LGBTQIA2S+ community.
Jason Rosenberg — an RPC organizer who suffered numerous injuries, including a broken arm, and was refused medical treatment for hours in lock-up after the NYPD attacked a queer- and trans-led Black Lives Matter protest on June 2, 2020 after the killing of George Floyd — added: "We are glad that the Anti-Violence Project was finally able to get HOP to listen, but HOP's refusal to recognize the years of work Reclaim Pride has dedicated to championing these issues in HOP Town Halls, direct meetings between the two groups, and in our Marches is erasure of the worst kind."
"I suppose this is a welcome change from 2017, when HOP sicced the NYPD on nonviolent Black and Brown ‘NYC Shut It Down’ members for protesting the presence of Canadian police who had been barred from Toronto Pride. But does HOP realize that the ‘private security’ firms they plan to bring into next year's march to replace the NYPD are generally staffed by former and/or current and off-duty police officers?" asked Chidi Adeyemi, a QLM organizer.
The NYPD's Strategic Response Group included photos of that violent takedown of the Shut It Down crew in its training manual, per the Intercept.
As for GOAL's hurt feelings and the "disappointment" expressed by members of the NYPD brass, like Deputy Commissioner John Miller: "If the NYPD leadership or GOAL had issued so much as a single tweet condemning the continual, horrific violence inflicted on queer- and trans-led protests for Black lives by rioting NYPD officers over the course of the last year, they might be able to claim that they care anything about our LGBTQIA2S+ communities," said RPC organizer Jay W. Walker. "But it is clear that the only thing they care about is continuing business as usual."
Last year’s Queer Liberation March was attacked by NYPD using pepper spray and batons, and in the past month, the NYPD has attacked and violently arrested queer and trans BIPOC organizers of the weekly Stonewall Protests, twice.
RPC organizers also pointed out that the ingrained kowtowing to corporate interests in the HOP parade continues to be of concern, posting a simple message across their social media platforms: "Do corporations next."
The 3rd Annual Queer Liberation March (#QLM3), organized by the Reclaim Pride Coalition (RPC), will again take to the streets of Manhattan in full force on Sunday, June 27 (Pride Sunday), marching from Midtown to Greenwich Village. Marchers will assemble at Bryant Park, 6th Ave and W. 41st St. at 2:30 p.m. The Queer Liberation March will step off from Bryant Park at 3 p.m.
WHAT: 3rd Annual Queer Liberation March — #QLM3, #QLM2021
WHEN: Sunday, June 27: 2:30 p.m. Gather, 3 p.m. Step-Off
WHERE: Bryant Park at 41st and 6th Ave.
DIRECTIONS: B, D, F, M to 42nd St. Bryant Park; 7 to 5th Ave.
EVENT: On Facebook and on the Reclaim Pride Website
https://www.facebook.com/events/339909424144713
https://ReclaimPrideNYC.org/events
The 2019 and 2020 Queer Liberation Marches attracted more than 40,000 marchers each, hungry for a return to the political, community-centric marches of the years following the Stonewall Rebellion. The Reclaim Pride Coalition is committed to recreating that free community gathering.
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Reclaim Pride Coalition (RPC) is a New York City-based group of LGBTQIA2S+ activists in alliance with dozens of grassroots community groups, nationally and internationally. RPC organizes the Queer Liberation March. In June 2019, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, RPC mobilized more than 45,000 people to recreate the original 1970 Christopher Street Liberation Day March route uptown from Stonewall to Central Park. In 2020, under the darkness of the global pandemic, RPC held the Queer Liberation March For Black Lives and Against Police Brutality. The QLM is the annual people’s protest march without corporate funding; corporate floats; politicians’ grandstanding; or police control or involvement.
We are: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Two-Spirit, Non-Binary, and Gender Non-Conforming!
For Reclaim Pride Coalition’s complete statements of purpose:
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RPC 2020 March - Demands & Safety Info
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Website: https://ReclaimPrideNYC.org
Facebook: @QueerMarch Instagram: @QueerMarch
Twitter: @QueerMarch TikTok: @QueerMarch
Donations: https://reclaimpridenyc.org/donate
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