2023-06-25 18:24:00
The celebrations were mixed with shows of resistance in the LGBTQ+ pride parades that filled the streets of some of the biggest cities in the country on Sunday in annual events that have become part party and part protest.
In New York, thousands of people marched down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to Greenwich Village, cheering and waving rainbow flags to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riot, in which a police raid on a gay bar sparked days of protests and launched a LGBTQ+ rights movement.
While some cheered with cheers, many were aware of the growing conservative counter-movement to limit rights, including by banning care for transgender children.
“I’m not trying not to be very political, but when he addresses my community, I feel very, very upset and very hurt,” said Ve Cinder, a 22-year-old transgender woman who traveled from Pennsylvania to participate in the largest pride act in the world. country.
“I am afraid for my future and for my trans brothers. I am afraid of how this country has considered human rights, basic human rights,” she said. “It’s crazy.”
Parades in New York, Chicago and San Francisco are some of the events some 400 Pride organizations are hosting across the United States this year, many with a specific focus on transgender rights.
In Chicago, 16-year-old Maisy McDonough painted her eyes and face the colors of the rainbow at her first Pride parade.
She told the Chicago Tribune that she is excited to “be together” following a difficult year for the community.
“We really need the love of this show,” he said.
Entertainers and activists, drag performers and transgender advocates are some of the parade’s great marshals embracing a message of unity as new laws once morest the LGBTQ+ community come into force in several states across the United States.
“The platform will be raised, and we will see communities across the country show their unity and solidarity through these events,” said Ron deHarte, co-chairman of the Pride Association of America.
Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver and Seattle were scheduled to hold pride parades on Sunday.
In the parade in Toronto, Canada, more than 100 groups were expected to march. In New York, seven-time Grammy winner Christina Aguilera would headline a post-march concert in Brooklyn.
The annual celebrations have spread to other cities and have grown to welcome bisexual, transgender, and queer people, as well as other groups.
About a decade ago, when her 13-year-old son wanted to call himself a boy for the first time, Roz Gould Keith sought help. She found little help in helping her family make the transition. They attended a Pride parade in the Detroit area, but saw little or no transgender representation.
This year, she is heartened by the increased visibility of transgender people at this month’s marches and celebrations across the country.
“Ten years ago when my son asked to go to Motor City Pride, there was nothing for the trans community,” said Keith, founder and CEO of Stand with Trans, a group formed to support and empower transgender youth and their families.
This year, he said, the event was “packed” with transgender people.
One of the grand marshals of the New York City parade is non-binary activist AC Dumlao, chief of staff for Athlete Ally, a group that advocates for LGBTQ+ athletes.
“Encouraging the trans community has always been at the center of our events and programming,” said Dan Dimant, spokesman for NYC Pride.
Many of this year’s parades called on LGBTQ+ communities to unite once morest dozens, if not hundreds, of bills now being considered in state chambers across the country.
Lawmakers in 20 states have moved to ban gender-affirming child care, and at least seven more are considering doing the same, adding further urgency for the transgender community, advocates say.
“We are under threat,” organizers of the Pride event in New York, San Francisco and San Diego said in a statement joined by 50 other Pride organizations across the country. nature and intensity, share a common trait: they seek to undermine our love, our identity, our freedom, our security and our lives.
Some parades, including the event in Chicago, planned to tighten security amid the turmoil.
The Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD, a national LGBTQ+ organization, found 101 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents in the first three weeks of this month, roughly double the number in all of June last year.
Sarah Moore, who analyzes extremism for the two civil rights groups, said many of the June incidents coincide with Pride events.
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