NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on Sunday for the Queer Liberation March, a protest that presents itself as "the antidote to the corporate-infused, police-entangled, politician-heavy Parades that now dominate Pride celebrations."
The protest, organized by the Reclaim Pride Coalition, is deliberately scheduled to conflict with the annual New York City Pride March and seeks to carry on the lineage of the Stonewall Riots in which queer New Yorkers fought police after a raid on a gay bar.
The demonstrators met at Foley Square at 1 p.m. to walk the original route of the first Pride March that took place in 1970 to commemorate the Stonewall Riots from a year earlier.
A large crowd also gathered around noon for the Black Trans Liberation March at Stonewall.
Much of the Black Trans Liberation March focused on Donnell Rochester, an 18-year-old Black man who Baltimore police fatally shot and then handcuffed as he lay bleeding in February.
The protesters at the Queer Liberation March were joined by several politicians, though not nearly as many as the Pride March in which Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams both participated.
Governor Kathy Hochul marches in NYC Pride Parade.Darren McGee/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul
State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou; Cynthia Nixon, the actress turned politician who ran against Andrew Cuomo for governor in 2018; and Ana Maria Archila, an activist who is running for Lieutenant Governor, all attended the Queer Liberation March.
In the past few years, the NYPD has carried out arrests, beatings and used pepper spray at both the Queer Liberation March and the Pride March.
As of Sunday afternoon, at least one person was arrested at the Pride March, though it's unclear why. The NYPD did not respond to 1010 WINS' request for more information on the arrest.
The Queer Liberation March started in opposition to the increasingly corporate Pride March in 2019.
In the face of criticism from activists, Pride March organizers have in recent years tried to reconcile the parade's dueling identities as a corporate-friendly party and the progeny of a radical protest.
The organizers banned police from marching in uniform or recruiting at the event for the first time in 2021.
This year, the parade was led by a "resistance contingent" made up of local activist groups. Corporate sponsors and elected officials were barred from this section.
Planned Parenthood was invited to march first in light of the Supreme Court's recent decision on Friday to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that enshrined abortion as a right in the U.S.
For many, protests like the Queer Liberation March and the Black Trans Liberation March continue to be the more urgent and relevant way to commemorate Stonewall despite NYC Pride's efforts to acknowledge social justice amidst the party.
Queer Liberation March but also Fuck SCOTUS pic.twitter.com/R1S7PsQ3zM
— photohustler (@photohustler) June 26, 2022
