“When I see the parade now - the mardi gras, the floats and everybody is partying, and there’s all these commercial floats and advertising,” Shumsky explained, “it’s a little bit upsetting and a little bit sickening that we have lost that feeling of that first march that was just incredible - that we were out of the closets and into the streets. Tim Fitzsimons / NBC NewsĮllen Shumsky, an original member of the early LGBTQ activist group Gay Liberation Front, was part of the Christopher Street Liberation Day march in 1970, and says it was the first time she felt she could “step out of my closet and be proud.” Shumsky, who now supports Reclaim Pride's efforts, said she’s disappointed in what the official NYC Pride March has become.
Colin Ashley, a Reclaim Pride organizer, said the Queer Liberation March is a protest of the over-policing of NYC Pride and “the selling off of pride to over 150 corporate floats.” Ellen Shumsky, a veteran Gay Liberation Front member, speaks on behalf of the Queer Liberation March in Sheridan Square, New York City on May 14, 2019. On the other side of the country, San Francisco’s Pride parade was halted temporarily after multiple protesters crossed onto the parade route and blocked the street at around 11 a.m., local time. The alternative march is the result of years of tension between members of the Reclaim Pride Coalition and Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit that produces the official NYC Pride event.
