Recalling Heroes, #QueerLiberation NOT Rainbow Capitalism, None of us are free till all of us are free. #AbolishICE, #Justice4JRoxsana, #Justice4Joa #EndHIVDetention and #EndTransDentention.

Bottom photo by Jay  Blotcher, selfie with ACT UP membera Carlos Valentin and Jamie Leo, and other snapshot of heroes from the #queerliberationmarch. 

The Judson Community in action:

"We marched toward liberation today, for over sixty city blocks, and it was stunning. 

Thank you for your marching, for your singing, and for your trailblazing, both in carrying the memories and icons of our queer saints of the past and in paving the way for our queer saints to come. 

Beloved and proud,

Micah"

 

"This is a march,  not  a parade.

The Queer Liberation March includes people that are here in spirit and not in body. This includes trans women of color angels, missing & murdered indigenous women, people who died in the AIDS crisis, Stonewall rioters, culturally-specific queer ancestors, international queer & transgender folks & others with concerns for their safety, people with disabilities who are unable to march, people who loved us & supported our journeys, etc."

Scenes  from Reclaim Pride by Ken Schles

On the way to the Reclaim Pride March on Sunday, I put on a pin for my friend Keith Cylar, my old friend from ACT UP and Housing Works.

In addition,

I carried a sign with a photo of Bob Kohler, a Stonewall veteran who stayed active within countless movements, including ACT UP, speaking out for homeless youth, the people who rioted until his last breath.  He taught me more about movements than anyone I know, reminding us that Stonewall  meant fighting back.  It also meant building bridges  between causes,

something we did  all weekend, connecting  the old spirit of Gay Liberation  Front with  today’s movements.  Rather than nostalgia, Reclaim Pride was a declaration.

My Stonewall begins with Bob and his stories. 
"The street was broken glass," he recalled of those days in June of 1969, outside the Stonewall.
"The Stonewall window was smashed and there were cops all standing around like storm troopers.
You'd look a block away and still see trash cans smoldering."

Sunday, it extended from Brooklyn to Sheridan Square,

From the West Village to Central Park, and  back  to Brooklyn.

Walking  to the march from  Brooklyn, a man stopped me on the sidewalk.

“Is that Keith Cylar?” he asked, pointing to my pin.

I knew Keith, worked with him.

Keith Cylar keep up the struggle,

I thought to myself, thinking of the chant from his funeral civil disobedience in 2004,

46-years-old too young.

I was going to meet historian and veteran of Gay Activist Alliance Jonathan Ned Katz and members of ACT UP at Julius.

I never  found Katz, who decided to walk  on his own.  He’d been  profiled by Masha Gessen in the New Yorker earlier in the week.

 “In the winter of 1971, a textile designer named Jonathan Ned Katz went to a G.A.A. meeting. “I was terrified,” he told me on the phone. “I knew it was going to change my life, but I didn’t know how.”

When he first started going to demonstrations, Katz told me, he had no hope for effecting change. “I did it because it was nice to be with other people—it felt good,” he said.

That said, Katz, who is eighty-one, wanted me to know that he has had just the best almost-fifty years and is still full of joy. “It’s great that I no longer have to live in shame and go to my therapist and say, ‘I want to be a heterosexual.’ I have so much fun discovering gay history. I’m Jonathan Ned Katz, detective historian! I wouldn’t have become that if I hadn’t gone to that G.A.A. meeting.”

“…it was nice to be with other people—it felt good” -  that could have been the theme on Sunday; it felt  good  to  connect  with  everyone from my city of friends,  without being  separated, told when or where to depart. 

The first person I ran into was Arni Kantrowitz, whose account of the early days of the Gay Activist Alliance, Under the Rainbow, is one of the best movement stories I’ve ever read.

From Julius,  members of ACT UP walked to Sheridan Square.

where  we’d trace the  route of the  original  route of  the  1970

Christopher Street Liberation Day March of 1970, all the way up 6th Avenue, ending with a rally in Central Park's Great Lawn

ACT UP member Carlos Valentin gave me a pin for ACT UP legend Andy Velez.

“Andy Velez keep up the struggle!” we chanted marching.

“Andy Velez keep up the struggle!” recalling his years and years, decade after decade with the group, odd not to have him marching with us.

But somehow he was.

So was Bob.

So was Keith.

So  was  Sylvia.

ACT UP alumni held photos and signs of fallen ACT UP members and others who have died of AIDS. From Bob Rafsky, to Kiki Mason, to Katrina Haslip, to Hugh Steers, to Marsha P. Johnson, to Keith Haring, “let us remember them all and honor them with action” wrote Jason Rosenberg.

Members of ACT UP carried signs for representing the at least 17 HIV+ asylum seekers that died in ICE custody Roxsana Hernandez and Johanna "Joa" Medina are two HIV+ trans women that died in ICE custody.

ACT UP passed out flyers demanding ICE is abolished, that ICE ends the detention and abuse of queer, trans, and HIV positive asylum seekers.

One man in  ACT UP told me  about meeting Andy Velez for the first time.

Another  told  me 25 years ago he was  on his deathbed; he had no  idea he’d make it to Stonewall 50.

But he made it.

Walking up to Central Park, I talked with most everyone I  know.

My neighbors, fellow union members, activists from all over the city, walking without the usual barricades separating the crowd from the spectators.

Few police to be seen.

JC pulled Randy Wicker of the Mattachine Society.

Steven  Love was roller skating, with his Peace sign.

The Revolting Lesbians marched with the Rude Mechanical Orchestra.

“Why are you here, asked my friend, I mean I know but…”

“This march is about fighting fascism, fighting racism, fighting for sexual freedom.”

Uptown we walked, greeting Jim, a veteran of the riots.

And held a moment of silence to stand silently as we remember those we’ve lost.

Walking with Leslie and Ken, up and into the park, where we’ve met so many times before,

At antiwar, peace, no nukes rallies.

Andrew Boyd was there, sitting with us.

None of us planned to meet but we knew we’d be there.

Old friends all part of an abundant movement for a more caring world.

Here we were in the park again, listening, wondering, hanging out, resting  our tired feet,

‘Your rainbow doesn’t mean shit if you are not doing the right thing by sex workers,” noted Cecelia Gentili,  of Decrim NY, a coalition of more than 30 sex worker, legal, harm reduction, LGBTQIA+ and health groups, that recently launched an official campaign for decriminalization and an end to incarceration andone of the speakers at the rally.
Olympia Sudan recalled Sylvia and thanked the crowd for  taking  the time  for  Black Trans Women.

“”For some of us, it doesn’t get better.  If you are locked up in a cell it doesn’t get better.  It is no liberation when we have ICE, when we have Rikers.

Sex work is work.

“Ain’t no respectabililty if sex workers are locked up.”

Before  the rally Leslie Cagan wrote:

“24 hours from now thousands of people will be gathering for the Queer Liberation March, the alternative to the Heritage of Pride/World Pride Parade. I’ll be there - will you join?

We will take to the streets to honor those who were part of the Stonewall Rebellion 50 years ago. Tomorrow, we will demand an end to the ongoing and often deadly assaults on our communities, and we welcome the participation of everyone!  If you are queer (however you define that) then this march is for you. If you have had it with the assaults on so many communities, the attacks on the hard-won gains of social movements over many decades, the threats of war and the undermining of democracy then this march is for you.

“The Queer Liberation March is a people’s political march—no corporate floats, and no police in our march. Please see our statement on Why We March. We honor the powerful legacy of the Stonewall Rebellion by highlighting the most marginalized members of our community, as we commit to addressing the ongoing struggles that we face..”

“Everyone is welcome to join the March at any point. The March is free, legal and safe, with no pre-registration or wristbands required.”

None of us are free till all of us are free.

Before his death, Bob reminded us of this point, the Stonewall spirit, which echoed from movement to movement. 

 "Winter Solstice

while there is a lower class, I am in it,
while there is a criminal element, I am of it,
and
while there is a soul in prison I am not free.
………………………………..Eugene Debs
My very best wishes for a happy holiday.
………………………………….Bob Kohler"