A parade of the pride of three million people, the gigantism contested by a more austere march for those who consider that the event has lost its soul: New York marked Sunday the 50e anniversary of the events of Stonewall, founders for the LGBT community.
As early as 10 a.m., several thousand people, according to police, marched through Greenwich Village, then along the 6e Avenue towards Central Park, for a protest parade entitled “Reclaim Pride” (“Reclaiming Pride”).
The first of its kind in New York, the march aimed to protest against the business machine that has become the Main Pride Parade and its 70 corporate sponsors – including Morgan Stanley, Axa or Delta – and to maintain the “radical tradition” of the riots. from Stonewall.
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It was in front of the gay bar of Stonewall, in the heart of the Village, that, for six days from June 28, 1969, riots pitted police and homosexuals exasperated by the repression of their community: they would relaunch the movement for homosexual rights. and give birth in June 1970 to the first Pride parade, a demonstration which was to spread to metropolises around the world, even if homosexuality remained illegal in some 70 countries.
“Our goal has never been just equal rights for the LGBT + community,” said Peter Tatchell, 67, a human rights activist who became famous for trying to arrest the ex-autocrat of the Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe, who came from London for this protest march. “My goal is to transform society […] a society with freedom and social justice for all ”.
“Stonewall, it was riots, and it’s important that Gay Pride is not too much taken over by big business,” also said Bennett Sherr, 20, a Cornell student, who came to parade with a friend. “There are companies that fund Gay Pride and then donate millions to anti-LGBT politicians.”
Many protesters were carrying signs denouncing the policies of the Trump administration, from attacks on abortion to the separation of migrant families on the Mexican border to threats to transgender rights.
Three million people
The controversy with the main march, which was to start around noon since the 5e Avenue and 26e street towards Greenwich Village, however, remained moderate.
Many participants in the protest parade indicated that they would also take a tour of this “World Pride” that the Democratic mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, a great advocate of the gay community and presidential candidate 2020, presented as ” the biggest pride march in Globe history. ”
Some three million people were expected from all over the world for this rainbow-colored day that was to end with a party in Times Square and a concert by Madonna, icon of the gay community.
Stonewall, “This is our story. This is the reason why we can be what we want to be, that’s why it was important to come and celebrate, ”explained Francesco Servalli, 38, from Italy on Friday.
For him, as for many others, Gay Pride remains an opportunity to encourage each other to continue the fight for equal rights, in a global context marked by the coming to power of “extreme” political leaders – he quotes Donald Trump, Matteo Salvini in Italy and Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil.
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“I have the impression that we are going backwards,” he said, citing in particular the attacks against transgender people. “But maybe that’s the story: sometimes you have to go back a bit to be able to go further”.
With so many people expected, the police forcefully deployed on the streets of Manhattan, in uniform and in civilian clothes, assisted by drones and helicopters in the air.
After the shooting in a gay bar in Orlando, which killed 49 people in June 2016, the New York police had reinforced their device for Gay Pride.
“Since then, the threat has only increased, with the growing threat from the far right, which can also target the LGBTQ community,” explained John Miller, head of the New York police force in early June.
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