PRIDE'S PURPOSE
WORST PRACTICES
What emerged from my research is that the current practices of the Official NYC Pride March ran by Heritage of Pride are worst practice for a Pride march. Through my research I have come to the conclusion that the Official NYC Pride March does not support, and is even detrimental, to the needs of the most marginalized queers communities, including transgender, gender non-conforming, and QPOC; however, the queer community is large and has many nuanced needs and wants and I will stop short of saying the Official NYC Pride March is ‘bad’. Below I have identified some of the worst practices of the March and my recommendations to change those practices. Many of these recommendations come from Reclaim Pride’s demands to Heritage of Pride in 2018.
Corporatization
Mondays
4:30 pm
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Create a higher level of entry for sponsorship. T-Mobile paid $175,000 to be the top level sponsor for the Pride March while their revenue is $40.604 billion. Corporate sponsors should pay more.
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Utilize and publish transparent evaluation criteria for sponsorship. Corporations should have to prove they are queer allies in their history, practice, and policies, not through money.
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Minimize corporate branding during the march.
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Lower the level of entry for queer owned businesses to sponsor the march.
Marching
Tuesdays
10:00 am
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Limit participating groups to queer owned businesses and nonprofits.
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IF for profit businesses are allowed then they must sponsor a nonprofit with no forced corporate branding. In addition, for profit businesses should have a stick limit on the number of people allowed to march in their group.
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Prioritize and privilege transgender, gender non-conforming and QPOC organizations and marchers.
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Limit the participation of political parties and elected officials and do not privilege their groups by giving the preferential placement at the top of the parade.
Police
Saturdays
11:30 am
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Recognize police violence towards marginalized queer communities.
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Limit the police presence at the march and create police free zones, secured by trained community safety volunteers.
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Do not allow police to march in the parade.
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Remove police barricades along the parade route.
Transparency
Saturdays
11:30 am
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Publish funding sources and sponsorships.
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Regularly report transparent decisions made regarding march routes and negotiations with the police and city government.
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Provide regular and widely advertised opportunities for community input throughout the planning and feedback process.
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Provide accessible options and information for both marchers and attendees.
HUGOGYRL
Image Credits in Order: T-Mobile; Reclaim Pride; Washington Blade; HUGOGYRL Instagram