“We fundraise in the community and we’ve been an alternative space for 27 years,” said Alex Tereshonkova, an organizer of the lesbian march, adding: “I just don’t think there’s a place for Heritage of Pride any more.” In more recent years another march, for greater transgender rights, has also taken place in June. The lesbian, or self-described dyke march, has always been a breakaway, unofficial march that differentiated itself from the Pride parade by being a more political, unsponsored hybrid between celebration and demonstration. “When I look at the dyke march I see an amazing, radiant swath of women, it’s just fantastic,” said Dobbs. The Queer Liberation March plans to hew closer to the model of the annual lesbian march, which traditionally takes place on the last Saturday in June, the day before the official Pride parade. But they were unable to agree on a compromise, said Dobbs.
Leaders of Heritage of Pride and the Reclaim Pride Coalition had held talks about changes to the official annual event. There’ll be no sponsors, no uniformed police, no floats,” said Bill Dobbs, an organizer of the Queer Liberation March. What happened at Stonewall in 1969 changed my life and we’re going to take that spirit into this new century. It intends to shun policing by the New York City police department and instead provide its own security via volunteer marshals. Organizers have called the alternative event the inaugural Queer Liberation March.
The statement added that the event did not address the urgent continuing needs of the queer community “still under daily attack by the Trump administration and in countries around the world”.
This does not represent the ‘spirit of Stonewall’ on this 50th anniversary year,” a statement from the Reclaim Pride Coalition organizers said. “The annual Pride parade has become a bloated, over-policed circuit party, stuffed with 150 corporate floats. The rival, bare bones Reclaim Pride event will stomp the route of the original march for queer rights that evolved out of the rebellion against a police raid on the city’s Stonewall Inn in 1969 – and will go from that downtown bar, which still operates and was made a national monument by Barack Obama, uptown to Central Park. Organizers expect up to 4 million people to descend on the city for this month’s Pride events, culminating this weekend. The bigger parade, titled Heritage of Pride Parade, will carouse from uptown to downtown Manhattan and combines its celebration with World Pride, the international LGBTQ event hosted by a different country each year. This year what will probably be the biggest queer celebration in New York City history will consist of dueling marches – the gigantic, official annual Pride march with all the celebratory floats, fueled by big business sponsors and a breakaway march designed to be a grassroots protest not only for the cause of civil rights but against the over-corporatization of the main parade.