Pride or protest? Disillusioned plan their own LGBTQ march

One of the biggest celebrations of LGBT pride in New York City history will culminate Sunday with not one, but two processions through the streets of Manhattan, after dissidents who believe the annual parade has become too commercialized decided to split off with their own march.

Both parades cap a month of events marking the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, when patrons of a Greenwich Village gay bar fought back against a police raid and sparked a new era of gay activism and visibility.

Some 150,000 people are expected to participate in the NYC Pride March, with hundreds of thousands more lining the streets to watch as New York hosts WorldPride for the first time.

In this March 27, 2019, photo, activist Natalie James speaks during a meeting of the Reclaim Pride Coalition at the Church of the Village in New York. Activists who believe New York City’s annual LGBTQ Pride march has become too commercialized are staging an alternative march the same day. The two marches through Manhattan streets will take place Sunday, June 30, the last day of a month of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

Organizers of the insurgent Queer Liberation March say they expect 10,000 or more at their event, which they say will have a protest vibe.

The main Pride march, the dissidents say, has strayed too far from its roots as a ragtag liberation demonstration celebrating an act of resistance. They complain that today's march is dominated by corporate floats and is too heavily policed by the same department that raided the Stonewall in 1969.

Police Commissioner James O'Neill apologized this month for the Stonewall raid, but organizers of the alternative march deemed the apology too little, too late.

In this March 27, 2019, photo, Nigerian activist Michael Ighodaro speaks during a meeting of the Reclaim Pride Coalition at the Church of the Village in New York. Activists who believe New York City’s annual LGBTQ Pride march has become too commercialized are staging an alternative march the same day. The two marches through Manhattan streets will take place Sunday, June 30, the last day of a month of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising. (AP PhotoMary Altaffer)

The upstart queer march is scheduled to start at 9:30 a.m. at the Stonewall Inn and end with a rally in Central Park.

The larger NYC Pride March will step off at noon with corporate sponsors including T-Mobile, MasterCard and Delta Air Lines. It will also pass by the Stonewall Inn before concluding in the Chelsea neighborhood. A related closing ceremony in Times Square will feature a performance by Melissa Etheridge.

There are 677 contingents marching in the larger parade, each of which had to register months in advance. Police barricades will keep marchers separate from the throngs of cheering spectators, as they do at other large New York City gatherings like the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

In this June 28, 2015 file photo, participants carry a rainbow-colored flag down Fifth Avenue in New York during the Heritage Pride March in New York. One of the biggest celebrations of LGBT pride in New York City history will culminate Sunday, June 30, 2019, with not one, but two processions through the streets of Manhattan, after dissidents who believe the annual parade has become too commercialized decided to split off with their own march. (AP PhotoKathy Willens, File)

Those barricades are one of the things that have upset participants in the Liberation March, who say anyone will be welcome to join their procession.

"In the original marches, the whole point was that anybody could join in," said one of the organizers, Ann Northrop. "You could walk off the sidewalks and into the street and everybody was welcome, and that no longer applies."

Reclaim Pride supporters also claim that the presence of so many corporate floats in premier spots forces grassroots contingents to the back of the line.

Charles King, the CEO of Housing Works, an AIDS advocacy organization that's handling the finances for the Reclaim Pride Coalition, said marchers from his group were placed so far back last year it was completely dark by the time they finished parading.

"The question is, what is this about?" King said. "Is this about our liberation? Or is this just one more commercial activity, like the Macy's (Thanksgiving) parade?"

And, backers of the Liberation March say, the NYC Pride March can simply be too festive, letting celebration drown out anger over continued bigotry toward LGTBQ people.

"I love Pride. I first marched in Pride in 1979. But I think that right now there is more than a celebration that needs to be had for the Pride parade," said Tom Viola, executive director of the theater world charity Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS, which has donated $25,000 to the Queer Liberation March. "We need to acknowledge not only our victories; we need to mourn our losses, and we need to take a strong stand against those who would diminish or demean us."

But the main march has grown much too large to be staged without security precautions or corporate support, said Cathy Renna, a spokeswoman for NYC Pride.

NYC Pride's annual budget for the march and some two dozen other Pride month events is about $12 million, including mandatory payments to the police department.

"The reality is that those sponsors and partners help the march happen and help make it free for tens of thousands of people," Renna said.

"I'm not nostalgic for the bad old days, to be totally honest," she said. "The reason we're having these discussions is because so many people have come out. Because there's been so much progress. Are we begrudging that?"

Supporters note that the main Pride parade still has a notable protest element. Past marches have seen colorfully costumed dancers sharing the route with groups protesting violence against transgender people or a lack of AIDS funding.

"This is a debate that has existed for as long as Pride has existed," said James Fallarino, a member of the executive board of Heritage of Pride, which stages the main march. "Our community has had to deal with a lot in the last 50 years, and we have always found a way to unleash our anger while at the same time celebrating who we are and our diversity and our unapologetic pride."

Activists also staged an alternative New York City march in 1994, accusing official parade organizers of downplaying the AIDS crisis, among other issues.

The staggered start times should allow people to participate in both marches, which is what Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum plans to do.

"I believe there are many different ways to express the feelings that we have at this particular moment in history 50 years after Stonewall," said Kleinbaum, the pastor of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, which serves the LGBT Jewish community, and a grand marshal of the Pride parade in 2007.

Kleinbaum said her congregation will have a presence at each march Sunday.

"I think there's room for both," she said, "and we need to not create circular firing squads."

Find complete AP Stonewall anniversary coverage here: https://apnews.com/Stonewallat50

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will pull the majority of its troops from Chad and Niger as it works to restore key agreements governing what role there might be there for the American military and its counterterrorism operations, the Pentagon said Thursday.

Both African countries have been integral to the U.S. military’s efforts to counter violent extremist organizations across the Sahel region, but Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement last month that allows U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. In recent days, neighboring Chad also has questioned whether an existing agreement covered the U.S. troops operating there.

The U.S. will relocate most of the approximately 100 forces it has deployed in Chad for now, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Thursday at a press briefing.

“As talks continue with Chadian officials, U.S. AFRICOM is currently planning to reposition some U.S. military forces from Chad, some portions of which were already scheduled to depart. This is a temporary step as part of the ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume after Chad’s May 6th presidential election," Ryder said.

In Niger, the majority of the 1,000 U.S. personnel assigned there also are expected to depart, Ryder said.

U.S. and Nigerien officials were expected to meet Thursday in Niger's capital, Niamey, “to initiate discussions on an orderly and responsible withdrawal of U.S. forces," the State Department said in a statement late Wednesday. Follow-up meetings between senior Pentagon and Niger officials are expected next week “to coordinate the withdrawal process in a transparent manner and with mutual respect,” Ryder said.

Called status-of-forces agreements, these deals allow the U.S. to conduct critical counterterrorism operations within both countries' borders and have supported military partner training. The reversals have prompted concern that U.S. influence in Africa is losing ground to overtures from Russia and China.

Relations have frayed between Niger and Western countries since mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president in July. Niger’s junta has since told French forces to leave and turned instead to Russia for security.

Earlier this month, Russian military trainers arrived to reinforce the country’s air defenses and they brought Russian equipment, which they would train Nigeriens to use.

Niger plays a central role in the U.S. military’s operations in Africa’s Sahel region, a vast region south of the Sahara Desert. Washington is concerned about the spread of jihadi violence where local groups have pledged allegiance to al-Qaida and the Islamic State groups.

Niger is home to a major U.S. air base in the city of Agadez, about 920 kilometers (550 miles) from the capital, which is used for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations. The U.S. also has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in training Niger’s military since beginning operations there in 2013.

Officials from the State Department, U.S. Africa Command and the Pentagon will work with Chad’s government to make the case for U.S. forces to continue operations, Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Adm. Christopher Grady said Wednesday.

Grady told The Associated Press in an interview that if both countries ultimately decide the U.S. cannot remain, the military will have to look for alternatives to run counterterrorism missions across the Sahel.

“If we are asked to leave, and after negotiations that’s the way it plays out, then we are going to have to recalculate and figure out a new way to do it,” Grady said.

The news of the departure of U.S. forces in Chad was first reported by The New York Times.

FILE - Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Christopher Grady, right, arrives for a closed door briefing about the leaked highly classified military documents, on Capitol Hill, April 19, 2023, in Washington. Grady says there's been no final decision on whether or not all U.S. troops will leave Niger and Chad. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

US to pull troops from Chad and Niger as the African nations question its counterterrorism role

US to pull troops from Chad and Niger as the African nations question its counterterrorism role

FILE - A U.S. and Niger flag are raised side by side at the base camp for air forces and other personnel supporting the construction of Niger Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger, April 16, 2018. The United States is attempting to create a new military agreement with Niger that would allow it to remain in the country, weeks after the junta said its presence was no longer justified, two Western officials told The Associated Press Friday April 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Carley Petesch, File)