On Sunday, June 11, the traditional Pride Parade in Los Angeles was replaced by a march with a more political mindset. The #ResistMarch saw tens of thousands of people dressed in rainbow garments protesting against U.S. President Donald Trump.
The annual Pride Parade’s original intentions are to claim for LGBTQ+ equality. But the current political climate brought the masses together against their latest threat: Trump’s administration. Marches are being held in many cities across the United States, such as New York, Austin, Seattle, and Washington D.C. Having become protest instead of a parade, the march aims to carry on with the impact generated in January by the successful Women’s March.
The march also aimed to pay homage to the victims of the mass shooting last June at Orlando, Florida’s, Pulse nightclub.
The #ResistMarch comes a year after Christopher Street West – the annual event’s organizers – attempted to rebrand 2016’s Pride as a music festival focused on millennials. A lot of drama sparked as a group under the hashtag #NotOurPride threatened to boycott the parade. Since they felt the new format wasn’t inclusive enough with the older community, trans people, and even the tickets got more expensive.
Signs and chants filled Hollywood Boulevard
The resistance march started at 8 a.m at Hollywood and Highland and ended in West Hollywood Park. Filling one of the most famous parts of Hollywood Boulevard. This was where one of the nation’s first gay pride parade took place in 1970.
While volunteers were handing out American and rainbow flags, people were carrying signs that read messages such as “Resist Insist Persist” and “I Am Human.” There were also chants of “LGBTQ people are under attack! What do we do! Act up! Fight back!”
According to the organizers, they were expecting 30,000 people at the parade, but the actual number surpassed those expectations.
Matching the intentions of the march, Rev. Troy Perry, founder of the Metropolitan Community Church and Christopher Street West, offered a sermon about how hard things were for gays and lesbians back in the ‘70s. He also spoke about the hate crime that happened in Pulse last year, that killed 49 people. 49 purple balloons were released in their honor.
The march ended in a rally where Rep. Adam Schiff and Re. Maxine Waters shared some thoughts, mainly about Trump.
Waters euphorically called of Trump’s impeachment. “Impeach 45!” she said, leading the crowd in a chant. “I am you and you are me and we are one. We resist homophobia… We resist anti-Semitism, we resist hatred towards Muslims and all religions,” she added.
Schiff cherished the crowd, saying that he was proud to be with them. “We are also mad as hell,” he said. “The LGBT community has always been the tip of the spear in the resistance movement. We march for our Constitution and the rule of law.”
Trump has not said a word – or sent a tweet – in response to the #ResistMarch series or other LGBTQ-related events held on Sunday across the country.