Hundreds of protesters poured through Chicago’s largest LGBTQ neighborhood Sunday in a Black Lives Matter march against racism, transphobia and police brutality.
The second annual Drag March for Change, led by drag performers of color, built on last year’s demands for more gigs, inclusion and respect in the primarily white, male, cisgender Northalsted neighborhood, which is also known as Boystown.
But leaders also called for Chicago to spend less on policing and more on community groups and social services; for attention to the high homicide rate among Black transgender women; for more representation in leadership positions in Northalsted; and for the Empowering Communities for Public Safety ordinance, a police reform bill that would set up a citizen oversight board.
“There will be no progress without struggle,” organizer Jo MaMa told the crowd as it prepared to march.
“We march today in support of all Black lives, and we remember where we came from, because the first (Pride march) was … what?”
“A riot!” the crowd yelled back, referencing the 1969 Stonewall riots that helped ignite the modern gay rights movement.
The protesters proceeded north on the neighborhood’s main commercial artery, chanting “Pride was a riot!” as passersby took photos. Even as cries of “(Expletive) your brunch!” — a reference to the popular Northalsted Sunday ritual — rang out, some customers smiled and leaned closer to take in the view.
Protesters, many of them white, held hand-lettered signs with messages such as, “No pride for one of us without liberation for all of us.”
In a speech at the end of the march, Jo MaMa, the drag persona of Chicago artist and bartender Joe Lewis, called on marchers to work to bring about the ambitious goals of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Jo MaMa, who is transgender and uses they/them pronouns, asked white people to help protect Black people from physical harm.
Tall and stately in a floor-length white suit coat, Jo MaMa gave the crowd a flirtatious sideways glance: “You can also donate,” they said, to laughter. “That’s something you can do.”
Speakers included “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alums Denali and The Vixen. The Black drag performer Lucy Stoole asked the crowd to commit to doing this work “for the rest of your life.”
“I don’t care if it’s calling out your racist auntie at Thanksgiving dinner,” Lucy Stoole said, calling for acts both big and small.
“We’re not even close to being done,” Lucy Stoole said.
One of the most heartfelt — and uncompromising — speeches came from LaSaia Wade, the Black, transgender leader of Brave Space Alliance on the South Side.
“I’m a mother to a community that has no mothers,” said Wade, referring to transgender youth who are rejected by their families. She pointed to the deaths of four Black, transgender women on the South Side of Chicago, and called on the crowd to prioritize transgender-led organizations.
“It is still a scary time, and explicitly for Black, transgender women,” she said.
