#NoJusticeNoPride: The Disconnect Between Pride and Resistance
“Why did I even have to ask if my own existence was protected at a Pride parade? Why do I have to ask everyday if my own existence will ever be protected?”
As the D.C. Capital Pride weekend dwindles down and the Pulse shooting anniversary comes up tomorrow I’ve had a lot of emotions come up, to say the least. I reveled in the idea that a Pride weekend in a progressive city would yield the community I craved for, one that was intersectional, accepting and loving. I’ve been working for the Human Rights Campaign, I’ve met queers of all shapes and colors, they all told me it was way better here then it was in Oklahoma or Kansas. For a second, I actually believed that racism, xenophobia, transphobia, etc, might be only around the tourist-y areas where the South could seep into my safe haven city. I was very very wrong.
I have not had the best week when it comes to tolerance of my identities. I was called a “nigger faggot” canvassing in front of the Natural History Smithsonian Museum and was told that I could not control my urge to go down on people as a “hunger fag” so my energy was low. The thing that kept me going was the fact that D.C. Capital Pride was quickly approaching and I could not wait to kiki with all the queers. When we went to the kick off party (Rachel and I) I was a little taken aback by the whiteness that overran the space, I got so used to blackness running the city that white queerness was the push back I never asked for. So when Saturday rolled around the Parade just solidified my worst fear, the D.C. Capital Pride was just as white washed as ever Pride that I’ve ever experienced. I had played myself in the worst way possible by expecting better from this queer community, the Chocolate City queer community nonetheless.
Now I know some white cis gay man is probably reading this trying to figure out why this is such a pressing issue and I only know this because the white cis gay Pride bae that I picked up hushed me with kisses when I was expressing extreme distaste earlier this morning. He’s gone now and his number is blocked. My oppression is more important then a pretty white twink with pseudo wokeness and deaf ears when it comes to doing better but that’s besides the point. White cis gay men, what you need to understand is that Pride started as a riot, the voice of the unheard. It was lead by trans woman of color who were sex workers and drag queens, I don’t care what Hollywood’s whitewashed version told you. Marsha “Pay it No Mind” Johnson and Sylvia Rivera did not change the world for all queer folkx for the event to be turned into a white gay corporate party that dismisses history and brutality from police officers. So sit back, relax and take this to heart so you can do better forever.
With that out of the way, let’s get back to the important topic at hand, D.C. Capital Pride. I decided I was going to feel out the parade although I was invited to a resistance Pride that did not idolize corporations/police and got back to the root of what Pride was, resistance. I walked to the block party area and watched from a shady area because it was hotter then Satan’s toenails. I watched as the queer bike gangs and black D.C. Pride sashayed their way down the street, giving all that blessed Pride energy I was craving. Then I saw the police, I saw oppression, I felt fear, I felt silenced, I was uncomfortable. The rainbow flags on the police cruisers did not make them less triggering, the gay policemen or lesbian policewoman did not make me feel like they would not treat me equally, it was false advertising. I watched as the “special unit” police force that worked with Asian, Latino/x, deaf, blind and LGBTQIA+ made me audibly ask “what about black lives?” Why did I even have to ask if my own existence was protected at a Pride parade? Why do I have to ask everyday if my own existence will ever be protected?
So then there was a pause. No one was moving and I was growing irritable so I asked Rachel if we should go to the block party. We shimmied our way across the street and started walking towards the selling tents when we hear someone yelling over a microphone “no justice, no peace!” So my activist heart kicked into high gear and I started scrambling to see who was chanting and why. I watched young folkx get spit on, yelled at, harassed and surrounded by the police but stand their ground firmly. They did not come to play with the Parade and I was living until I heard the crowd I was trying to navigate through:
“Your life doesn’t matter!”
“Niggers are always mad about something.”
“Why can’t they protest things that are important, we have the same problems as they do.”
I was livid. I was reminded why it is so difficult for me to exist in the queer community as a black body. I felt the same feelings of uneasiness every time I hear a white gay man say he has a black woman inside of him. My heart sunk to the same place it goes every time a black body is lost due to transphobia, racism, police brutality and one of my communities does not care. I was done, Pride was cancelled and I took to Twitter to tell my experience in the crowd as #NoJusticeNoPride successfully disrupted D.C. Capital Pride.
Today, during the Equality March, I listened to black and brown queer folkx discuss solidarity and resistance. I heard voices talking about the importance of lifting up the elderly, the youth, bisexuality, trans and GNC folkx, black and brown folkx, pulling up the margins first like the tarp our community tends to feel like to make sure we have everyone. I wonder if those white queer men at the Parade heard and listened. I wonder if the Chipotle float that said “homo estás” figured out that their cultural appropriation was not cute. I wonder if the Parade organizers rethought adding businesses/organizations/systems that are oppressive to marginalized identities since they make it unsafe so said identities can not trust the queer community.
You are not resisting by existing if you pride oppression over equality.
Do not tarnish Pride with whiteness, capitalism and colonialism. I will never stand up in my queerness if it means diminishing my blackness. Gaycism is real, push back against that! And when I say push back against that it’s more then recognizing your privilege. Figure out how to lift up QPOC voices more then you already are! Actually listen when those voices are speaking! Educate yourself ESPECIALLY on the history of Pride! Do not let your privilege run rampant and be more worried about why the Parade is not moving rather then recognizing the Parade is fucked up to begin with!
Thank you #NoJusticeNoPride for standing up for yourselves, the people who could not stand up for themselves and for me. You’re beautiful, you’re unapologetic and you’re the future! Keep being loud and keep fighting because it is not over. I love you and I hear you. Thanks again.
We’re here, we’re colored, illegal, international and queer and were not going anywhere!
- I
If you like what you read please comment and like. If you wanna discuss the topic all handles on social media are @alltimeisaac. Got ideas you wanna collab on? Hit me up and we will see what we can come up with. Love, peace and cocoa butter based hair grease.
