No Justice No Pride Issues Statement; Shuts Down Seattle Pride Parade

No Justice No Pride protesters shut down the 2017 Seattle Pride Parade in downtown Seattle with Black Lives Matter activists. Photo: Basil Shadid

Protesters have shut down the 2017 Seattle Pride Parade at approximately 11:50 am PDT this Sunday, June 25, 2017.

The following statement was sent to Seattle Gay Scene this morning from organizers behind the No Justice No Pride Seattle protest group.The group plans to stage a protest at today’s Seattle Pride Parade in downtown Seattle, Washington at some point during the event which begins at 11 am PDT. No Justice, No Pride Seattle is an offshoot of the group that successfully staged a protest at the Washington D.C. “Capital Pride” parade on Sunday, June 11th which resulted in the blocking of the parade and its subsequent re-routing.

No Justice, No Pride is a queer protest group opposed to corporate sponsorship of LGBTQ pride events from corporations they feel are harmful to global communities in general, but also specifically damaging to Queer people, Queer Youth and Queer People of Color. The group is also critical of government agencies and law enforcement they feel are acting detrimentally against oppressed groups.

The Seattle based branch of the group is specifically citing the June 18th death of Charleena Lyles as a rallying cry for their protest. Lyles, a 30 year old pregnant African – American woman and mother of 4 children was shot and killed by Seattle Police Department officers on a routine burglary call.

Their release in full:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

No Justice, No Pride Seattle

#NoJusticeNoPride #SeattlePride #Pride2017

Today, we invite you to build with us, toward a pride that centers justice. We are an autonomous, multiracial group of concerned two spirit, trans and queer people. We are here to transform the Seattle Pride Parade and create a space where our Pride cannot be bought by corporations and government entities that harm us and our communities. This is a space where Pride and Justice exist together with an unquestionable commitment to the dignity and humanity of ALL two spirit, queer, and trans people. This action is in solidarity with #NoJusticeNoPride actions from across the country.

We are broken hearted and enraged about the death of Charleena Lyles and the incredible amount of Black and Brown people being murdered and harmed by the police. We feel betrayed by the corporatization of pride. As two spirit, queer and trans people…

• We are not proud of Wells Fargo, Chase Bank, and Bank of America’s participation in Indigenous genocide and investment in projects that pillage the land and contribute to climate change.

• We are not proud of governments like King County that choose caging our disproportionately Black and Brown youth over investing in their futures.

• We are not proud of medical establishments like UW Medicine and Kaiser Permanente that make it optional for providers to be queer and trans competent.

• We are not proud of corporations like Boeing that assemble war machines that lead to the deaths of Black, Brown, queer and trans people all over the world.

• We are not proud of corporations like Microsoft and Amazon that are in large part responsible for gentrifying this city and displacing Black, Brown, queer, trans, and disabled people.

• We are not proud of the Seattle Police Department, which enacts police terrorism on communities of color, which makes many in our community afraid for our lives.

We are against corporations marching for human rights who are directly participating in assaults on human rights.

We do not buy into Seattle Pride’s vision of LGBTQ diversity and inclusion, which gives a pass to companies and governments to make money off of poisoning people, locking people up, and paying people unlivable wages. At the same time, we are in solidarity with workers at these companies and look forward to working together to build toward a world where we are all free.

Our pride cannot be bought.

We invite you to join us in creating a world NOW, one where pride is always connected to justice and dignity for ALL two spirit, queer and trans people. We are here to build an altar. We are here to recreate the space that is stolen from us over and over again. We are here to honor the first people of this land, the Duwamish people, who have been here since time immemorial. We are here to honor the original intent of our trans ancestors Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson who initiated the first pride, a movement that knows none of us are free until we are all free. We are here to build an altar to the future we are already creating. We will have pride when Seattle Pride celebrations unquestioningly embody the knowledge that Black lives matter, that Immigrant lives matter, that Muslim lives matter, that Indigenous lives matter, that the lives of future queer and trans people who will inherit this earth matter.

This requires Seattle Pride to act now and bar harmful corporate and governmental entities from Pride participation.Our survival and our thriving is not optional. We know Justice and Pride must exist together.

Build with us toward a Pride that centers Justice.