The complex proliferation of Parades as the model for Pride Celebrations internationally is deeply disturbing to many people in the LGBTQIA2S+ communities. In the city of New York, home to the Stonewall Inn, a group of Queer activists decided the Parade in NYC had gone too far — too far from the spirt of the Stonewall Rebellion, and miles away from achieving societal equity for queer and trans people.

So was born the Reclaim Pride Coalition.

Community organizers, activists, and queers of conscience banded together after years of seeing the annual NYC Pride March transformed into a 7, then 9, then 12 hour circus. Overflowing with corporate floats and at the service of corporate money, the Pride Parade had become a new symbol of gay for pay. The imposition of barricades along the parade route separated the participants from its audience, turning the Pride March into an entertainment venue instead of a true expression of our cultural legacy. The presence of a dozen police officers at every intersection of the Parade marked the collusion of the non-profit board and the very instance of state sponsored oppression.

The Reclaim Pride Coalition stands by the tag, “No corps, no cops, no bs!”

In 2019, on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, we gathered 45,000 marchers to take to the streets of NYC in style - and following the same route - as the Christopher Street Liberation Day March. Our Queer Liberation March, and the Rally that followed in Central Park, marked a return to the traditional meaning and measure of a March.

The Queer Liberation March says “NO” to corporate sponsorship bribes, and rainbow covered anything. We say “NO” to involving police as the protectors of our spaces, as they show daily that they are not up to the task. We say “NO” to politicians’ grandstanding, trading in the struggles of Queer people for votes and political posturing.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic exasperated already frightening disparities for LGBTQIA2S+ people — in health care, in treatment of prisoners, in housing insecurity. We all bore witness to the rise and proliferation of white supremacy from the local precinct to the White House. In this year, we would still March, but this time it was a Queer Liberation March for Black Lives and Against Police Brutality. Providing both an in-person March, and a simulcast livestream of the March allowed unprecedented participation for our communities’ members. Again, more than 40,000 Marchers joined us in the streets.

For 2024, we will march again!

We haven’t forgotten the pandemic, but neither have we forgotten the resiliency of our LGBTQIA2S+ siblings and cousins from across the Queer spectrum.

Organizing is happening now, and we welcome participants both behind the scenes and right out on the street on the last Sunday of June.