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WE STAND WITH CHELSEA
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Please
continue to support SF Pride’s Board’s new policy against military recruiters
(see below) and plan on joining the Chelsea Manning contingent in San Francisco
Sunday June 29. We also urge you to
support Chelsea Manning by organizing a contingent at your Pride event, where
ever you are in the world, and let us know so we can help publicise widely.
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On
Feb 4th 2014 witnessed by an enthusiastic audience, the San Francisco
Pride Board voted unanimously for two crucial motions.
1)
For
Chelsea Manning to be an Honorary Grand Marshal for 2014 SF lgbtq
Pride.
2)
To
ban military recruiters from Pride. (see
exact wording of both motions below)
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We’ve
just heard that the California State Military Reserves (CSMR) has approached the
SF Pride Board to request a booth at the Pride festival, claiming they are not
‘military’. This is a blatant lie. Their
web page, at http://csmrsoldier.com/sample-page-2/,
says:
“The
California State Military Reserve is the Golden State’s official state defense
force. It is a part of the California Military Department, along with the
state’s Army National Guard and Air National Guard.…
the
President of the United States has constitutional authority to call all state
militias (which would include the CSMR) to national service in an emergency…CSMR
Soldiers also assist in the Global War on Terror, by helping train National
Guardsmen in a variety of functions, including weapons and tactics.”
(bold by QS)
The
CSMR request for a booth at SF Pride is a tactic to undermine SF Pride's new
policy against military recruiters at the festival. We are proud that our new Board has taken
this bold stand, showing their accountability to the queer anti-war majority.
San Francisco has a long tradition of being against war and we are a sanctuary
city.
Like
our queer sister Chelsea Manning who is paying with her freedom for revealing
war crimes by the US military, we urge everyone to be strong in protecting this
policy. This year we are honoring Chelsea Manning as a Grand Marshal, we knew
there would be a backlash and the Boards response was good. We knew this
military recruiter ban would be challenged, so we urge everyone to be determined
to defend it. Increasingly, private
military contractors, state militia, National Guard and the police coordinate
efforts and sophisticated war technology, like drones and other weapons of mass
destruction. SF Pride’s mission
statement says ‘we should liberate our people’, this can only mean by being
for life and against killing and the horrific environmental destruction
of our beautiful earth that war brings.
Queer Strike and Payday men’s network
See
background and motions below…
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Taking Pride: Victory for
Chelsea Manning and the Whole Anti-War movement!
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It was
our queer heroine Chelsea Manning‘s blowing the whistle on war crimes, who
sparked the lgbtq and anti-war movements’ blowing the whistle on SF Pride. Her
truth-telling exposed the rape, torture and murder of women, children and men
especially in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This was a deeply anti-racist act, as the vast majority of people
affected by war and occupation are people of color.
Her
leaks confirmed how obscene it is that so many people internationally and in
communities in the US, including San Francisco, are suffering from extreme
poverty and don't have the basics of life --drinkable water, food security,
housing, healthcare -- while the US military is lavished with funds for
slaughtering untold numbers of people, including lgbtq people, and destroying
the environment of our beautiful earth in the interests of the 1%.
Chelsea
Manning will finally receive the recognition she deserves from SF Pride and we
have kicked military recruiters out of the biggest Pride event in the US, one
which over 1 million people attend and millions more watch on media!
BACKGROUND
Grand
Marshal, Not Court Martial
In April
2013 SF Pride Board elected Chelsea Manning as 2013 Grand Marshal of the SF
Pride parade. They then rescinded that
vote, twisting the story by claiming that Chelsea’s actions put troops in
danger, well the truth is the troops are in danger because they are armed to
defend illegal wars and to occupy countries where they are not wanted. The
community exploded in outrage and a series of protests began. These stinging
words from the Board, “even the hint
of support for actions which placed in harms way the lives of our men and women
in uniform… will not be tolerated by the leadership of San Francisco Pride
”, ignited
our anger, giving voice to the anti-military principles that were part our
movements founding. The Grand Marshal, Not Court Martial
Coalition formed to mobilize community support and one result was that the
Chelsea Manning contingent was the largest grassroots contingent at Pride
and won several awards. The news of this campaign was publicized nationally and
internationally and a petition was launched putting further pressure on the SF
Pride Board.
Contingent
participants got a shock as we arrived at the end of the march at the plaza and
found that military recruiters had a booth at the celebration site. This had
never occurred before in Pride’s history. The booth was shut down by a crowd
of protesters, who surrounded it and blocked the recruiter’s access to the
public. Despite tremendous pressure, the
Pride Board never acknowledged wrong-doing for slandering Chelsea; for not
consulting the queer community on whether to allow military recruiters at
Pride.
A new
Board
By now,
many felt it was time for the old Board to be removed from office. By September
the Transparency, Accountability and Democracy slate, many of whom were
Chelsea supporters, had won the majority of seats on the Board. This was because many of us signed up to be
members of Pride, which, unlike in most non-profit organizations, gave us voting
rights. A process of cleaning up the organization had begun. The Fall meetings
were a battleground for months.
Military: Out of the lgbtq
community
During
this period a Town Hall meeting on the military recruiters was organized. At
this meeting, the men with few exceptions were leaning towards allowing military
recruiters and the women were roundly opposed.
The discussion had great honesty, frankness and painful moments with many
saying how the military had personally impacted their lives. There has been a
long history of gay refuseniks who have refused to kill, rape or torture for the
military. Stephen Funk, a young gay man
of Filipino and Native American descent, was one of them - the first US soldier
to make a public stand against the war in Iraq. The point was also made that San
Francisco has a long anti-war history and Pride could expect a protest every
year against the military booths if they allowed them again. In the end most were swayed into supporting a
ban.
There has been a deep split in the lgbtq community on the military, with conservative elite lgbtq people pushing a government pro-military agenda and having the resources to lobby and dominate the national lgbtq agenda. Although many of us are anti-military and against lgbtq people going into the military, others were not. It was not clear that the vote to kick the recruiters out would actually pass. In the end, although many of us found the language wanting, a motion to stop the military recruitment booths at Pride passed unanimously! A powerful message is being sent from SF Pride which we hope will encourage other cities to take strong anti-military stands.
A fresh lgbtq
movement
These victories,
honoring Chelsea Manning and what she did, and against military recruiting at
Pride, show that in San Francisco as in many other places, the grassroots queer
movement, including many newly enthusiastic young queers, are taking a fresh
look at what can be accomplished with collective work. It is time for Pride to
take action against the crisis issues so many of us are facing – poverty,
homelessness, lack of healthcare, and lack of the support we need as we get
older. This poverty leaves many young queer people (disproportionately people of
color and immigrants) prey to the military in the first place.
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Here
are the motions as they passed:
·
San
Francisco Pride Board of Directors elects to name Chelsea Manning as an Honorary
Grand Marshal for the 2014 Pride Parade and Celebration
·
SF
Pride applauds the suspension of the U.S. Armed Forces “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
policy, officially ending more than two centuries of anti-homosexual
discrimination by that institution. SF
Pride supports and honors the members of our community who are now serving or
have served in the U.S. Armed Services.
Nevertheless, because of the ongoing institutional practices of
discrimination against transgender people; the use of misleading advertising
specifically targeting economically disadvantaged youth, including LGBT youth;
and the danger faced by women and men of sexual assault, rape and harassment by
other members of the U.S. Armed Services; the SF LGBT Pride Committee does not deem U.S. Armed
Services recruiters an appropriate entity for participation in our exhibitor or
corporate sponsorship programs.
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