‘NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE’
About 150 people join march marking 51st anniversary of Stonewall Riots
About 150 protesters march down Jasper Avenue Sunday to mark the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. Participants in this year’s event called for justice for both Black and trans people, with many carrying signs that read ‘Black Trans Lives Matter.’
About 150 people marched through the streets of central Edmonton Sunday afternoon calling for justice for Black and transgender people on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
Demonstrators raised the blue, pink and white transgender pride flag and held signs saying “Black trans lives matter” while chanting “No justice! No peace!” as they marched from Beaver Hill House Park, down Jasper Avenue, and up 100 Street to Churchill Square outside city hall.
Organizer Chris Adebayo with non-profit Raricanow, which supports LGBTQ refugees, said ahead of the march that the group wants to highlight racial injustice, transphobia and police brutality.
“I demand to be protected like any other trans person, like any other nonbinary person, like any other cis person ... I demand to feel safe, to walk freely, but I don’t because every time cops are making us a target,” Adebayo, who uses they/ them pronouns, said on Sunday.
The peaceful protest was not deterred as light rain began to fall. The group also briefly stopped and knelt in the intersection of Jasper Avenue and 100 Street for about five minutes, many raising their fists in the air. Once outside city hall, the events continued with speeches and performances.
A list of demands posted by the group on Instagram call for more legal protections for QTBIPOC (queer, trans, Black, Indigenous and people of colour) in health care, housing, employment, public spaces, and for more mental health supports. They ask for Alberta’s Bill 1 targeting protests to be removed, call for defunding police, mandatory sensitivity training for people in positions of power, and that refugee status be given for LGBTQ people at risk in Canada, without being forced to come out.
Adebayo said they were driven to organize the rally after Black transgender man Tony Mcdade was fatally shot by police in Florida last month.
“How many people really heard about Tony’s story? Tony’s death?” they said. “This is why we’re here today. No more trans lives are going to be murdered by cops. No more. We don’t want to wait for it in Edmonton, because it would have been me.”
Adebayo said police arrested them and broke their shoulder in their home in April, and made them feel helpless and like they didn’t belong. They said it reminded them of being arrested by police for attending a gay pride event in Uganda.
“This pride has to be reclaimed to its roots, for the Black trans lives,” they said.
Sunday’s march came weeks after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody sparked global protests against anti-black racism and police brutality, and during a month of Pride celebrations.
The 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York are credited as a pivotal event in sparking the movement for equal rights for LGBTQ people.