Have you seen those pink-on-black posters for sTOnewall? They have the word “sTOnewall” and a date.
That’s all – no why, where, who. Is it a party, a demonstration, a march? By a lucky fluke, I’ve discovered it’s a political action slated for Sunday (June 26), gathering those who feel marginalized by official Pride. The group wants to commemorate the Stonewall riots that inspired the first Pride event and honour the now mainstream and corporatized festival’s political roots.
Great idea. So why not publicize it properly instead of turning it into a guessing game? It can take you half an hour to find the Facebook page, and what if you aren’t on Facebook? Those living on the margins might not have computers. Does their political voice not count?
The organizers of sTOnewall are the same crew who brought us the Take Back The Dyke march last year. That event – designed to wrest Pride away from corporate sponsors and unfold without the city and police as partners – found its moment when the censors pushed Pride into keeping Queers Against Israeli Apartheid our of the big parade.
Take Back The Dyke, already in motion, found new supporters among those disgusted by the way Pride caved.
But I had a problem with Take Back The Dyke from the start. For one thing, it was programmed to coincide with Pride’s Dyke March, which made no sense to me.
That march is already, in my view, counter-programming to the party-animal sensibility of the rest of Pride and a healthy antidote to the rigid strictures associated with the official parade.
You don’t have to sign up to join the Dyke March, or even be a member of an organization. And it’s always profoundly political, springing up from grassroots organizations concerned with everything from sex workers’ rights to violence against women and beyond.
So why subvert that particular element of Pride, and with an event so inside that some, especially younger women not hip to the history, felt actively excluded?
Fortunately – thanks to Pride’s decision to forgo the date always associated with the Stonewall riots – sTOnewall, this year’s alt-event, occurs the weekend before Pride takes over Church and Wellesley so it doesn’t create this kind of conflict.
It almost did run into a scheduling problem when organizers discovered that another potent event was already planned for the same Sunday.
Back To Our Roots: Breaking New Ground is an all-day (1 to 11 pm) event at the 519 (519 Church).
Organized by a raft of orgs including Blackness Yes!, Ontario Rainbow Alliance for the Deaf, Asian Arts Freedom School, Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, Pride Coalition for Free Speech and many more, the day is designed to remember the marginalized, the forgotten and the activists who made queer history. Look for dancing, ASL drag, performances, art-making, activism and celebration.
Sensing their affinities, the sTOnewall gang decided to mass at noon at Queen’s Park – all genders this time – and march to the 519 to meet up with the Back To Our Roots activists.
But the whole thing still makes me feel like the sTOnewall group is organizing in a vacuum. I understand the drive to make visible the marginalized community that Pride, in order to appease its business partners, has made invisible. But the cryptic publicity campaign and lack of an official announcement – let alone a specific area at Queen’s Park to meet up – give sTOnewall an exclusive vibe suggesting that only those in the know are welcome. Or is it that these activists want to remain on the political sidelines?
Either way, I and others like me, who sense the value of an alt-Pride action, should get our asses down to Queen’s Park on Sunday to support an event committed to liberation and a celebration of queer history – even if its organizing principles are a little sketchy.
susanc@nowtoronto.com
