Gay pride marchers express resistance
Some people wear ‘Make America Gay Again’ hats.
Events across the country take both celebratory and political tones, touching on social issues.
Thousands of people lined the streets for gay pride parades Sunday in coast-to-coast events that took both celebratory and political tones, the latter a reaction to what some see as new threats to gay rights in the Trump era.
In a year when leaders are anxious about the president’s agenda, parade organizers in New York and San Francisco were more focused on protest. In New York, for instance, grand marshals from the American Civil Liberties Union were chosen to represent a “resistance movement.”
Activists have been galled by the Trump administration’s rollback of federal guidance advising school districts to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice. The Republican president also broke from Democratic predecessor Barack Obama’s practice of issuing a proclamation in honor of Pride Month.
At the jam-packed New York City parade, a few attendees wore “Make America Gay Again” hats, while one group walking silently in the parade wore “Black Lives Matter” shirts as they held up signs with a fist and with a rainbow background, a symbol for gay pride. Still others protested potential cuts to heath care benefits, declaring that “Healthcare is an LGBT issue.”
“I think this year is even more politically charged, even though it was always a venue where people used it to express their political perspectives,” said Joannah Jones, 59, from New York with her wife Carol Phillips. She said the parade being televised for the first time gives people a wider audience.
And in Chicago, 23-yearold Sarah Hecker was attend- ing her first pride parade, another event that attracted wall-to-wall crowds. “I felt like this would be a way to not necessarily rebel, but just my way to show solidarity for marginalized people in trying times,” said Hecker, a marketing consultant who lives in suburban Chicago.
Elected officials also made a stand, Sunday, among them New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who said his state would continue to lead the way on equality. On Sunday, Cuomo, a Democrat, also formally appointed Paul G. Feinman to the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. Feinman is the first openly gay judge to hold the position.
But the pride celebrations also face some resistance from within the LGBT community itself.
Some activists feel the events are centered on gay white men and unconcerned with issues that matter particularly to minorities in the movement, such as economic inequality and polic- ing.
The divide has disrupted some other pride events this month.
The No Justice No Pride group blocked the Wash- ington parade’s route, and four protesters were arrested at the parade in Columbus, Ohio.