Pinkwashing rally: No more business as usual

DJ Suss D: It’s Pride Month, and Saturday Market was the site of an anti-pinkwashing rally on June 15. Pinkwashing is a form of false advertising promoting the gay-friendliness of a corporate or political entity in an attempt to downplay or soften those same entities policies that are not socially responsible, such as the facilitation of war and exploitation of people and the environment, anathema to the Pride message.

[00:00:30] A passerby said she’s been against war from day one.

[00:00:34] Illumina: Hi, I am Illumina and on the day I was born on, Jan. 24, 1973, peace was declared for the Vietnam War. And I had a front page of the Sun-Times, Chicago Sun-Times, in huge letters it said: PEACE! declared. And four days later, in the Chicago Tribune front page, big letters, WAR ENDS.

[00:01:02] And so I declare, hear now, cease-fire, and knock it off, whoever you are, wherever you’re from, causing this dissonance that we no longer have to tolerate. Because we realize we can say we do not consent. This is not okay. It’s our planet. We live here. We want to thrive. We know how. So knock it off.

[00:01:28] DJ Suss D: So, so maybe your magic is going to work again, right? That’s what I’m saying. So where does your magic come from? Where did this magic come from that stopped the Vietnam War, do you think?

[00:01:36] Illumina: It’s a place in the universe. You know, goodness is real. And we must align with good news.

[00:01:45] DJ Suss D: Local videographer Todd Boyle was encouraged by recent increased anti-war activism.

[00:01:52] Todd Boyle: I’m not a black man. I’m not a Palestinian. I’m not a Palestinian. And I’m not gay. But I have been oppressed for 50 years. I’m an anti-war person since the Vietnam War, and I’ve done years and years, but our collective success will only come by solidarity, and that’s why this, this group, and this, the things that people are talking about this week, this month, are just so incredibly heartwarming for me. Thank you all.

[00:02:21] Kamryn Stringfield: Alright, so what we’re about to do here in a second is: We’re going to march. We’re going to march and we’re going to show the Saturday farmers market that there is no pride in genocide and that we can’t just sit here and act like this is normal while a genocide is going on.

[00:02:44] DJ Suss D: Kamryn Alexandria Stringfield, national director of the newly formed People’s LGBT+ United Society, a working-class anti-imperialist LGBT+ organization, said we can’t just go on with our day as if nothing is happening while women and children are being killed.

[00:03:02] Kamryn Stringfield (PLUS): All right, so just to address what just happened. So, we were marching as a disruption, as a disruption. Because there can be no business as usual in a genocide. The folks attending this farmers market: Most of you are working class people. We’re not against you. We’re not trying to bust your eardrums today. We’re not trying to harm you.

[00:03:30] But you need to have the dignity to understand when a genocide is going on that we need to be speaking up against it. We need to be protesting. How can you gleefully on a Saturday just sit here and attend a farmers market as if there’s not a genocide going on? Where is your dignity?

[00:03:53] Where is your dignity? So yeah, we marched through the farmers market. We disrupted your day because there is no business as usual when a genocide is happening in Palestine. And by God, you better be ready for there to be more of it. Thank you.

[00:04:11] DJ Suss D: Activists continue to struggle getting humanitarian aid to Gaza and other war-torn areas. For KEPW News, I’m DJ Suss D.