NYC’s Queer Liberation March may be the most important protest & celebration this year

Marchers at the 2020 Queer Liberation March.
Photo: Leandro Justen/Courtesy of Reclaim Pride Coalition

“No cops, no corps., no BS.” Those are some of the founding principles of the New York-based Reclaim Pride Coalition’s annual Queer Liberation March, in a nutshell.

Each year since the march launched in 2019, an estimated 35­,000–45,000 people have gathered for the annual alternative to the better-known NYC Pride March, the city’s official parade organized by the non-profit organization Heritage of Pride. As Reclaim Pride co-founder Jay Walker recently explained to LGBTQ Nation, the purpose of the Queer Liberation March is to get back to the spirit of resistance that fueled the Stonewall Riot in 1969 and the first Christopher Street Liberation Day march in 1970 by recentering activist organizations, intersectionality, and the politics of the moment while rejecting corporate sponsorships and the involvement of the NYPD.

In a year when anti-LGBTQ+ animus—from Republican-backed laws aimed at limiting transgender rights to book bans to hateful rhetoric online—seems to have reached levels not seen in decades, that mission seems more critical than ever.

The theme of this year’s march, which will take place on Sunday, June 25, beginning with…

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