A Gay 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 50th anniversary of the events of Stonewall, founders for the LGBT community.
From 10 a.m. (4 p.m. in Switzerland), several thousand people, according to the police, marched through Greenwich Village, then along 6th Avenue towards Central Park, for a protest parade entitled “Reclaim Pride” (“Reclaiming the Gay Pride “).
The first of its kind in New York, the march aimed to protest against the commercial machine that has become the main Gay Pride and its 70 corporate sponsors – including Morgan Stanley, Axa or Delta – and to maintain the “radical tradition” of the Stonewall riots. .
Six days of riots
It was in front of the Stonewall gay bar, in the heart of the Village, that, for six days from June 28, 1969, riots opposed police and gays outraged by the repression of their community: they were going to relaunch the movement for homosexual rights and give birth in June 1970 to the first Gay Pride, an event 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, human rights activist who became famous for trying to arrest ex-autocrat from Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe . “My goal is to transform society, (…) a society with freedom and social justice for all”.
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 from 5th Avenue and 26th Street towards Greenwich Village, remained moderate, however.
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.
Continue the fight
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.
“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 force deployed in 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 left 49 dead in June 2016, the New York police had reinforced their device for Gay Pride.
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