Pride Anarchy
We thank you for your more fair and balanced portrayal of the anarchist involvement in this year's Pride Parade than the mainstream press (400,000 at Pride, Anti-Gays Spark Protests, Arrests by Tracy Baim 2004-06-30). However, there are a few errors that we feel need to be cleared up.
First of all, the anti-gay bigots who were invited to the parade by right-wing 'family values' Republican congressional candidate Anthony Cisneros were not stopped from marching by PrideChicago coordinator Richard Pfieffer but rather were allowed to march several blocks in the Pride Parade before being confronted and subsequently stopped by the queer anarchist contingent and several members of Chicago Anti-Bashing Network and Equal Marriage Now. It was during this confrontation that violence erupted, with anti-gay religious bigots attacking queer and pro-queer anarchists and yelling anti-gay epitaphs at us. Rather than stop this hate crime from happening at Pride, on the 35th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, the police showed their true colors and revealed their homophobic nature by beating and arresting members of the queer anarchist contingent rather than the anti-gay hatemongers whose very presence in a Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender pride parade was a hate crime in and of itself.
It was after the arrests were made that the anarchists accepted the offer to march with Equal Marriage Now and Chicago Anti-Bashing Network. We knew that those arrested would have wanted us to complete what we went there to do and that is march in the Pride Parade as out and proud queer anarchists. We came across the homophobic anti-gay bigots several more times on the sidelines of the march route and exchanged the usual angry words without further incidents. We believe that harsh words would have been the extent of the confrontation had the bigots not been allowed to march in the first place.
We reject the notion that we, as anarchists, went to Pride to 'cause trouble.' The queer anarchist contingent was organized by the Queer and Trans Caucus of the Chicagoland Anarchist Network, an autonomous GLBT/queer working group of the larger anarchist network. We were marching in Pride because we are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and pro-queer anarchists. We were marching because we wanted to present an alternative to the commercialization and corporate take-over of pride. We were marching to proclaim our pride was not for sale. We were marching because above all anarchists believe in freedom, and this includes sexual freedom. We went with a message of queer liberation, not assimilation.
If we were going to Pride specifically to cause trouble, then why didn't we do it during our lengthy unpermitted Feeder March? Our 'Creative Resistance to Homo-Capitalism' Feeder March started at Lawrence and Broadway in the Uptown area, detouring through the notoriously homophobic Wrigleyville neighborhood before meeting up with the Pride Parade at Halsted and Clark without a single problem. We were expecting to have to deal with homophobes in Wrigleyville, not in Boys Town. Not during the Pride Parade. Not on the 35th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Not on OUR day. If we were going to the Pride Parade to cause trouble then why didn't we do it after the confrontation with the bigots when we marched peacefully in the Pride Parade like we've done every year for the last four years?
We are outraged that false charges of aggravated assault on police officers are being leveled against three members of our contingent when none of the fundamentalist hatemongers were arrested. The police not only did nothing as the bigots were allowed to invade our parade and attack us, but the police actually sided with the bigots by protecting them while beating and arresting several of us. We believe Jeremy, Robert and Neal are courageous defenders of the GLBT/queer community and should not be on trial, the Chicago Police Department should be.
If you want to contribute to the legal fund of the three defendants, checks can be made payable to the Chicago Anti-Bashing Network (CABN) and sent to:
Chicago Anti-Bashing Network
4404 N. Magnolia Suite #420
Chicago, IL 60640
Please write 'Halsted 3 Defense Fund' in the memo section.
In the Spirit of Stonewall,
The Queer and Trans Caucus of the Chicagoland Anarchist Network