The Queer Insurgency Collective held signs criticizing the Pride March. The group said the event has become too commercial, and has lost its roots as a social justice march. Watch video
Celebrating its 30th year on Saturday, the march featured more than 102 contingents, with several featuring the Lady Gaga anthem as they passed by the crowd lining Northampton’s Main Street.
“No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgendered life, I’m on the right track baby, I was born to survive,” Gaga’s voice boomed over the crowd.
A group of students from the Gay Straight Alliance at Springfield’s Central High School cheered the marchers on, and a few sang along. They said they’ve been attending the Pride March for the past three years.
“No one’s judgmental. You can be who you are and express yourself . . . It’s a safe environment,” sophomore Xavier Cotto, 17, said.
“It’s more like a safe haven than anything else,” senior Kyle A. Rusin, 17, added.
The atmosphere was a jubilant one – with hula-hoopers, a group doing intricate formations with shopping carts, drag queens, Rocky Horror Picture Show actors, the Raging Grannies, and countless school groups, some chanting “five, six, seven, eight, don’t assume your kids are straight.”
A smiling woman wearing a “free hugs” sign offered them as she marched down the street.
The event was not without criticism, and it came from within the gay community.
“Queer Insurgency Collective,” a multi-racial group, made signs to hold along the parade route to protest the commercialization of the event.
“We are inserting all the left out issues, the left out people today from Northampton Pride. We are aiming to put the political issues back into pride,” said Bet Power, who described himself as a community activist who has marched in every Pride March since 1982.
“We feel it’s become an apolitical and commercialized event. That isn’t the roots of this march. It’s always been a social justice march for equality,” Power added.
“It’s run to make money around social events . . . It’s become a tourism event,” Power said.
Power said they are also protesting “the whiteness of the event,” as all four parade marshals are white. This is the first time the group has protested, but Power said he believes they are getting their message across.
Amy L. Proietti and Jessica L. Osit, of Greenfield, brought their five-year-old daughter, Marina Osit, and friends Missy L. Eich and Kara L. Richardson, who moved to Amherst last year from North Carolina.
“We come every year,” Proietti said. “It’s an event we look forward to.”
Proietti said the march is important.
“It’s about reminding folks that we need to keep fighting for our rights,” she said.
Eich said the Pride March was much different than ones they’ve attended in North Carolina. Eich said she was amazed by the number of families, friends and supporters who turned out. Richardson said at moments she became teary-eyed watching it.
Suzanne Garrow, of Northampton, a member of the Board of Directors for the AIDS Foundation of Western Mass., said she has been attending the march since its inception.
“We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go,” Garrow said.