Past Marches
In the spring of 2018, community members who had helped organize and marched in the Resistance Contingent at the 2017 Heritage of Pride Parade formed the Reclaim Pride Coalition to push back against a number of restrictions that the Heritage of Pride (HOP) leadership at the time had imposed on the Resistance Contingent and changes to the overall ability of individuals and small organizations to march in the parade. United under the name Reclaim Pride Coalition (RPC), these activists also challenged the growing influence and control that both the NYPD and corporate participants had been allowed – even welcomed – to exert over many aspects of the parade, going back decades. Though we succeeded in challenging some of these rules by Pride Sunday in 2018, in meetings held between RPC and HOP that summer in advance of the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, it became clear that there was an urgent need for a March in 2019 that would return Pride Sunday to its activist roots. By the fall of 2018, planning began in earnest for the first Queer Liberation March, to be held on Pride Sunday, June 30, 2019.
2019 - None Are Free Until All Are Free
Sheridan to Central Park - 06/30/19
The 2019 March was planned to recreate the route of the first Christopher Street Liberation March, held on Sunday, June 28, 1970, one year after Stonewall. Rather than adhering to the NYPD’s efforts over the years to diminish the footprint of the HOP Parade – ghettoizing it to Chelsea, Flatiron, and the West Village – The Queer Liberation March would begin in Sheridan Square and march north to Central Park. Whereas the Christopher Street Liberation Day March had ended in the Sheep's Meadow around 72nd Street, because of changes to Central Park rules about access the Sheep’s Meadow, The Queer Liberation March would end further north, on the Great Lawn, at 86th Street.
Aside from the increase in the distance of the march, the ethos we established held firm:
No cops: we wanted no large turnout of NYPD officers and no officers in uniform marching with us. Volunteer marshals would provide all the safety assurance our marchers would need.
No barricades: our march route would be open so that people would once again be able to come “Off of the sidewalk, into the streets!” anywhere they wanted.
No Corporations: We had no corporate sponsors. All the funding for the first march (and all subsequent marches) came from individuals and foundations.
We held a large staged rally, emceed by the legend Marga Gomez, highlighting the most marginalized members of our communities, particularly Black and Brown Trans folks, People Living With HIV/AIDS, and People Living With Disabilities. We paid tribute to 50 years of LGBTQIA2S+ activism, including veterans of Stonewall and ACT-UP. And we had amazing performances by ALL LGBTQIA performers including John Cameron Mitchell and Kevin Aviance. Our rally included GMHC and ACT-UP co-founder Larry Kramer’s final public speech.
Mission Accomplished
With 45,000 people attending, Queer Liberation March proved that none of the NYPD’s hemming in and constraining, over-policing and barricading, of the HOP parade was remotely necessary. And we proved that large, inclusive, and accessible public events can be done without corporate money and pinkwashing. But would we be able to do it again?
2020 - QLM for Black Lives
Against Police Brutality
We watched in alarm, as police killings of innocent Black Americans like Breonna Taylor and justice system cover-ups like that of the initially uncharged, court system-connected killers of Ahmaud Arberry stunned the nation. But in the week following the May 25th murder of George Floyd, in which we also lost Larry Kramer, there was a shift. Americans took to the streets. And many of our organizers were marching for justice as we mourned one of Queer America’s greatest leaders. After the protests that weekend, it became clear to our team that:
We would march! We would mask, and be as safety conscious as we could, but we there would be a Queer Liberation March!
The March would be called: The Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality.
The March would begin at Foley Square, in front of our state and federal courthouses and end with a rally in Washington Square Park, where Sylvia Rivera made her famous speech calling out the early 1970s Gay Liberation Movement’s indifference to the most marginalized members of our communities.
Livestream and in-person from Foley to Washington Square Park - 6/28/20
After a period of rest and reflection, the Reclaim Pride Coalition – with new organizers inspired by the first march in the room – began meeting again in late summer 2019, to decide if we would move forward with a 2020 Queer Liberation March. It did not take long to come to a consensus of “YES!” We embarked on an ambitious plan to significantly expand our online presence using streaming tools, video content, and a new route that would end in the West Village after passing by numerous locations of historical import to our communities. We were well on our way to implementing this plan when, in March, the city shut down due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. But we pressed on, deciding to do an online event with some socially distanced and masked in-person pieces that would be streamed. Many of our organizing team began working in community mutual aid efforts. Inspired by coalition partner The Stop Shopping Choir’s Reverend Billy Talen’s planting of a rainbow flag outside their tents, RPC began to protest right wing homophobe Franklin Graham’s Samaritan's Purse’s partnership with Mt. Sinai to operate a tented COVID-19 treatment center in Central Park, holding a number of press conferences to call out their hateful grift and successfully getting that partnership dissolved and Samaritan’s Purse out of our City.
And in a span of 4 weeks, we pulled it together, partnering with The Stonewall Inn to have a live streamed commentary on the march hosted by Pamela Sneed and Peppermint. As HOP cancelled their parade, we were the only Pride Event and the turnout was again over 40,000 marchers. Black Trans Media partnered with us to produce the rally at the stone stage platform in the southeast area of Washington Square Park.
But, it was there that the NYPD (in their feels because of the focus of our march) used the flimsiest of provocations (someone allegedly wrote “FTP” in Sharpie on a cop car that provocatively parked across the street from the Washington Square Arch) to attack and brutalize marchers who had begun an impromptu dance party in on Waverly Place. Thankfully, our rear marshals were on hand to de-escalate this NYPD-instigated chaotic situation, so that by the time the NYPD’s (‘conveniently’ stationed nearby) Strategic Response Group marched in to cause more violence, there was nothing for them to do, and they retreated.
Bryant Park to Washington Square - 06/27/2021
2021
The 2021 Queer Liberation March from Bryant Park to Washington Square, was one of celebration, our communities having helped defeat the racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, and misogynist prior presidential administration, and cautious optimism as our country moved out of the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We partnered with ACT-UP, Treatment Action Group, and Judson Church on a health fair on Thompson Street and COVID vaccine tents there and at Bryant Park. We also, led with a banner celebrating people living with disabilities, who led the march. We again encountered a violent and belligerent NYPD presence at the Washington Square Arch which our team of marshals again had to de-escalate.
06/26/2022
2022 - The Queer Liberation March for Trans and BIPOC Freedom
The Queer Liberation March for Trans and BIPoC Freedom, Reproductive Justice, and Bodily Autonomy - Marching in response to the United States Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade and the rise in anti-Trans legislation and attacks on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and anti-Racism efforts in states and municipalities across the nation, we again began at Foley Square in view of the Federal Court and marched to Washington Square, where there was a Health Fair produced by ACT-UP and Treatment Action Group. The march was immediately preceded by a ceremony honoring Black ancestry held at the nearby African Burial Ground National Monument.
2023 - Forever Here, Forever Queer!
The 2023 March was in direct response to the attacks on Trans, Gender Nonconforming, and Nonbinary youth and healthcare in legislatures across the country, and the attacks on history curricula inclusive of LGBTQIA2S and TGNCNB history. We saw these attacks as a genocidal attempt at the erasure of our communities. We began with a rally at Foley Square featuring a broad and diverse group of speakers from numerous organizations across the city before marching to a dispersal at Washington Square Park.
2024 - QLM for Black, Brown, Queer, Trans, Gender Nonconforming, and Nonbinary Youth, and Against War and Genocide
The QLM has always striven to honor the legacy of the Stonewall Uprising. For our 5th Anniversary March, we once again began at Sheridan Square and the Stonewall National Monument at Christopher Park. But this time, we marched south to The Battery for dispersal. Our themes, as the subtitle indicated, were surrounding the support of youth from all marginalized communities and supporting the efforts combatting the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing campaigns taking place in Gaza, Congo, Manipur, India, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Zimbabwe. We were joined by numerous activist groups – many student-led – working on those issues.
