No Pride in Prisons say they support the group of protesters who staged a sit-in at the Victoria Pride March over the weekend and says Pride should be about resistance, not complicity. Emmy Rākete of the New Zealand protest group No Pride In Prisons says “Pride stems from a radical queer tradition started at the Stonewall riots in 1969, against police and other agents of state violence. No Pride In Prisons, and many others internationally, are ashamed to see this radical heritage cheapened and sold off to the highest bidder, for the benefit of an economic elite within our community. “We’re not proud of banks, we're not proud of homophobic politicians, we're not proud of a police force who use violence against Māori eight times more than they use it against Pākehā, we're not proud of the prisons in which our transgender sisters are beaten and raped. Pride should be about resistance, not complicity.” The Pride March in the Australian State of Victoria was held up by a group of protesters on Saturday who staged a sit-in to draw attention to “socially unjust oppressive systems”. Rākete says the group in Victoria have been in touch with No Pride In Prisons to let them know about what happened and how it went. She says, “We think it's ludicrous the organisers suggested they march in solidarity with the very people whose presence they were protesting. “We have a responsibility to exclude groups who perpetuate suffering, and marching alongside them doesn't achieve that.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 2nd February 2016 - 12:20pm