Mon 27 Feb 2017 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The No Pride In Prisons activist group says its non-appearance at Saturday's Auckland Pride Parade was due to a changing focus for the organisation. No Pride In Prisons protests Corrections and Police presence at last year's Auckland Pride Parade. Both the 2015 and 2016 parades were disrupted when No pride In Prisons forced their way onto the parade route adjacent to the VIP viewing area. They were primarily protesting the treatment of transgender prisoners by the Department of Corrections and objecting strongly to Corrections staff being allowed to march in the Pride Parade. Although NPIP issued a strong statement against the Department of Corrections, whose application to march this year was rebuffed by the Ak Pride Festival Trust Board, and Police in the lead-up to this year's parade they did not follow it up with a protest action on the parade route as many had anticipated. In an explanation issued exclusively to GayNZ.com Daily News NPIP says its focus has altered to more specifically provide support asnd advocacy for transgender prisoners and to work towards the abolition of the prisons system. The Auckland Pride Festival, they say, is no longer a focus for their organisation. "We decided late last year to open up our membership beyond just LGBTIQ people.... The LGBTIQ community cannot abolish prisons just by ourselves or just for ourselves. LGBTIQ people certainly experience some of the worst excesses of the violence of prisons, but this violence is also experienced by people from many other walks of life. In order to see the end of prisons in Aotearoa, we have to bring in as many people as possible – especially formerly incarcerated people, the bulk of whom are not LGBTIQ. "For now, the overwhelming majority of our members and the prisoners we support are LGBTIQ and many of our frustrations with Pride remain. With the inclusion of the racist Police force, banks, and other big corporations who use Pride and their LGBTIQ workers as a PR stunt, Pride still lacks a meaningful queer politics. But while we strongly encourage others to take the fight to Pride and make it a place for politics, our priorities have changed." "We certainly celebrate Auckland Pride’s decision to reject Corrections’ application to march in the parade this year," NPIP says. "We know, however, that this is not nearly enough to achieve justice for incarcerated people." You can read the full text of their statement here.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 27th February 2017 - 11:15pm