美国国家公共电台 NPR--Philly's Pride March returns this week with new organizers and focus

Philly's Pride March returns this week with new organizers and focus

Transcript¹

If anyone knows Pride at its best, it's Elicia Gonzales.

The 46-year-old queer, Latina activist² experienced one of her biggest milestones³ there. She proposed to her wife, Megan Hannah, in the middle of the Philly Pride Parade in 2014.

"I wanted it to be really over the top," said Gonzales, who's now the executive director of the Abortion⁴ Liberation Fund of Pennsylvania. "And it was like our biggest Pride ever. When I look back over the video, it's just filled with queerness and Latinidad. It was cool."

But even Gonzales can understand why some people don't feel welcome at Pride, especially LGBTQ people of color. In Philadelphia, she has joined a new group of queer and trans activists⁵ who are trying to rebuild Pride into something more welcoming — and more revolutionary.

2022 has been a record-breaking year for anti-trans legislation, according to the LGBTQ rights group Freedom For All Americans. Hundreds of bills have been introduced around the country attempting to ban gender-affirming healthcare for LGBTQ youth, and keep trans kids out of school sports. That, stacked on top of a nationwide reckoning over racism⁶ in policing, has inspired many cities to change how they celebrate LGBTQ people.

Listen to March On: The Fight for Pride, a podcast series by WHYY about a new group of diverse organizers working to rebuild Pride.

In Philadelphia, a nonprofit called Philly Pride Presents ran the city's biggest LGBTQ events for decades. That is, until it suddenly disbanded in June 2021 after being accused of racism and transphobia.

The accusations⁷ were based on a series of now-deleted Facebook posts. Philly Pride Presents posted a Memorial Day status last year that included what appeared to be the Blue Lives Matter flag — but with a rainbow stripe instead of a blue one.

The Blue Lives Matter flag is a symbol that has come to represent everything from support for police officers to white nationalism, and even that 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va. — which left one person dead.

A few weeks later, a separate post that described the Stonewall Riots referred to the trans women who led the resistance as "those dressed as women," implying that trans women aren't actually women.

"That really was the worst kind of insult you could pay," said José de Marco, a longtime organizer with the HIV/AIDS coalition⁸ ACT UP Philadelphia. "People saw this and had absolutely enough of Pride and their B.S."

Activists say the Facebook posts echoed a long history of Philly Pride Presents being too cozy⁹ with police, and too centered on the white, cisgender gay male experience.

The LGBTQ community had previously¹⁰ criticized the group for charging money to get into the Pride festival, and for hosting the event on a date that always conflicted with the Odunde Festival — the largest and longest-running African American street festival in the country.

Then, in 2016, Philly Pride Presents offered the title of parade grand marshal to a group of LGBTQ police officers, called the Gay Officer Action League of Greater Philadelphia. GOAL turned down the honor after backlash from queer people of color.

To Gonzales, honoring police at Pride was offensive — since the annual parade started with the 1969 Stonewall Riots in New York City. That's when a group of LGBTQ patrons at the Stonewall Inn finally pushed back against constant raids of gay bars and violence by the police. The protest is known as the catalyst¹¹ for the annual Pride parades — and the modern LGBTQ rights movement as a whole.

"To be so brazen¹² as to not only work in collaboration¹³, but to try to celebrate the police at your event was not even a dog whistle," Gonzales said. "It was blatantly¹⁴ harmful."

When the old Pride fell apart, a new group stepped in. For the first time, a group of mostly Black and brown LGBTQ organizers are throwing Pride in Philadelphia on June 5.

This year, Philly Pride will be a march instead of a parade, to emphasize an ongoing¹⁵ fight for LGBTQ rights. It'll end in a street fair with music and dancing, food and drinks, and multiple stages for performers. And it'll be free to enter — for the first time in almost 30 years.

Ashley Coleman, a member of the new PHL Pride Collective, said there will be no police officers marching at Pride this year. The group also put together its own community safety model.

"In addition to private security, we have the medics, the doctors and nurses," Coleman said. "But also mental health providers, social workers, therapists on site at our community resource centers to come in if things start getting a little hot, little heated. [They] can come in and de-escalate things."

Philly isn't the only place where Pride is changing. A new coalition of LGBTQ groups has taken over Pittsburgh Pride, after the nonprofit that used to run the event disbanded in the summer of 2020.

Boston's long-running Pride organization also disbanded over concerns about inclusivity in the summer of 2021. A new Pride group has not yet formed publicly.

In San Francisco, Pride organizers aren't allowing police to march in uniform this year. So they're boycotting¹⁶ Pride, along with the San Francisco sheriff's department and fire department. The whole ordeal¹⁷ has led San Francisco Mayor London Breed to declare she's not going to Pride this year.

With hundreds of anti-trans bills sweeping¹⁸ the nation, some say Pride should return to a protest, like its Stonewall roots.

Ciora Thomas, a Black trans woman from Pittsburgh, organizes an event called the People's Pride.

"As an LGBTQ community, we need to be centering Black and brown trans people," Thomas said. "Because our ancestors, our trans-cestors, they fought so hard, but for the gay rights movement. But the main folks who are being targeted now are trans folks."

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

3 milestones   

n.重要事件( milestone的名词复数 )；重要阶段；转折点；里程碑

参考例句：

• Several important milestones in foreign policy have been passed by this Congress and they can be chalked up as major accomplishments. 这次代表大会通过了对外政策中几起划时代的事件，并且它们可作为主要成就记录下来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Dale: I really envy your milestones over the last few years, Don. 我真的很羡慕你在过去几年中所建立的丰功伟绩。 来自互联网

4 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

5 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

7 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

8 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

9 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。

10 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

11 catalyst   

n.催化剂，造成变化的人或事

参考例句：

• A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical reaction.催化剂是一种能加速化学反应的物质。
• The workers'demand for better conditions was a catalyst for social change.工人们要求改善工作条件促进了社会变革。

12 brazen   

adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的

参考例句：

• The brazen woman laughed loudly at the judge who sentenced her.那无耻的女子冲着给她判刑的法官高声大笑。
• Some people prefer to brazen a thing out rather than admit defeat.有的人不愿承认失败，而是宁肯厚着脸皮干下去。

13 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。

14 blatantly   

ad.公开地

参考例句：

• Safety guidelines had been blatantly ignored. 安全规章被公然置之不顾。
• They walked grandly through the lobby, blatantly arm in arm, pretending they were not defeated. 他们大大方方地穿过门厅，故意炫耀地挎着胳膊，假装他们没有被打败。

15 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

16 boycotting   

抵制，拒绝参加( boycott的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• They're boycotting the shop because the people there are on strike. 他们抵制那家商店，因为那里的店员在罢工。
• The main opposition parties are boycotting the elections. 主要反对党都抵制此次选举。

17 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

18 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？