07/01/2015
"In protest against the displacement of q***r women, working class communities of color, and q***r community institutions in San Francisco, several hundred d***s and allies will splinter from the planned annual D**e March on Saturday in the Mission District. The splinter march will follow the original protest route, reclaiming D**e March as a political action, centered in radical politics and solidarity with communities experiencing displacement and racist police violence.
The decision to reroute the official D**e March route off of 18th street and away from historic institutions like the Women’s Building and the former Amelia’s bar comes in the midst of an affordable housing crisis that is displacing our d**e community, friends, and neighbors. Amidst the rapid changes happening in San Francisco, the March and annual rally in Dolores Park have always served as a precious time for reunion with one another and recommitment to the values we hold as a community.
The recent Dolores park renovations are being used as an excuse to increase daily policing and criminalization in the park and to deny d***s access to the park for this historic annual event, further highlighting the need for our solidarity with all communities experiencing displacement in San Francisco. We learned of the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage nationwide at the same time as we are witnessing the foreclosure of our places and traditions of public gathering. Our march is meant to serve as a reminder that the D**e March and radical q***r tradition have always been about the right to public existence, not private privilege.
In coming weeks, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is poised to pass a budget that cuts key eviction defense services for tenants and radically expands funding for the police department. At the same time, organized white supremacist and homophobic forces in SFPD remain uninvestigated and the local arrest rate of black San Franciscans is over seven times higher than arrests of white people. Further, the city continues to advance in the planning of a $290 million jail rebuild while black people representing 6% of the city’s population make up 56% of the people locked up in our county jail system. San Francisco needs to invest in housing, not cages.
The future of San Francisco’s d**e community is bound up in a larger struggle for racial and economic justice. Being q***r women means fighting homophobia, racism, misogyny, transphobia, and ableism. We will not stand silently. In solidarity with the movement for the dignity of black lives and against state-sanctioned police violence; in solidarity with tenants and working class communities of color being displaced from our beloved city… we march.
For more information or to set up interviews, please call: Joey "Cupcake" Stevenson at 415-513-7260.
About D**e March:
The first San Francisco D**e March was held in June 1993, and is still celebrated every year on the Saturday evening before the annual Pride Parade. The streets along the route have historically been lined with thousands of enthusiastic spectators, the loss of which will be keenly felt this year. The march traditionally begins in Dolores Park with speeches, performances and community networking and ends in the Castro District. The San Francisco D**e March has historically seen attendance of anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000 attendees."
