What is Pride today?
A project spanning two classes I examined the question: What is the purpose of Pride and is it effective? I conducted secondary research and first person interviews, held a design-led research workshop, and created a website with the outcomes.
Role
Design researcher
Workshop Facilitator
Website Designer
Date
Spring 2019
Problem Statement
2019 was the 50th anniversary of the the Stonewall Riots in New York City which led to the creation of the annual Pride March. World Pride came to NYC to celebrate Stonewall 50. As a response, the Reclaim Pride Coalition emerged, opposing many of the core elements that have become central components of the Official NYC Pride March. I am a queer person living in NYC and have friends who are deeply involved in Reclaim Pride. Through conversations about the movement, I began to reflect upon my own Pride experiences and question if Pride is effective, and if so, to what goal?
The Stonewall Riots were the catalyst for the Christopher Street Liberation Day March, a political protest. The goal of the march in 1970 was clear, to claim space and rights; however, today the purpose of Pride is less clear. Throughout my queer community, it was evident that there was discontent around the current structure of Pride, but in order to answer whether Pride is effective I realized I need to take a step back and ask: What is the purpose of Pride?
This project reflects my attempt to answer that question through work in the Best and Worst Practices in Humanitarian Aid studio and congruent work Participatory Media Research.
Process
My process alternated between external research and internal reflection. This project, the process, and the ‘outcomes’ was a continual learning and reflexive process for me, a process I am continuing. The process was also a mix of ‘formal’ research methods integrated with ‘informal’ learnings in my daily life as an individual member of the queer community.
literature review
My first step was to conduct a literature review that comprised the history of Pride, as well as noted contemporary issues regarding Pride today.
reclaim pride meeting
I attended the citywide organizing meeting on March 27th, hosted by Reclaim Pride, for the Queer Liberation March. The meeting took place at the Church of the Village, in the West Village. I had three goals in attending the meeting. First, I wanted to observe and absorb the intent and spirit behind the Reclaim Pride movement. Second, I had flyers for my workshop to hand out. Third, I had a personal interest in learning about and supporting the movement.
The meeting was very inspirational both from a personal and research standpoint. The demographics of the meeting was much older than I was expecting and it highlighted that different generations under the queer community may have a different expectation of what Pride should be. The main issues raised in the meeting were regarding the presence or involvement of the New York Police Department (NYPD) and inclusion. Although the main agenda of the meeting was to update the community on the march that Reclaim Pride is planning, the organizers opened the floor for comments at multiple points, actively practicing inclusion. Additionally, many of the comments and questions, from both the organizers and the community members present, were regarding how to create an inclusive march from multiple angles.
Participatory workshop
Through the literature review and attending the Reclaim Pride meeting I was able to gain a good sense of the areas of contention surrounding the pride march. Yet, most of this was framed in what the march shouldn’t be about, rather than what people thought the purpose of the march should be about. Additionally, much of it was on a theory or organizational mission level, rather than looking at personal level motivations. I was hoping a workshop would allow me the opportunity to engage with a few people on their own experiences with Pride. There were three participants in the workshop, all queer millennials.
The workshop included:
Workshop members creating a narrative of their pride experience(s) with a variety of provided images and icons, drawing, and writing
A shareback of narratives while noting themes on sticky notes
A mapping and discussion process through sticky notes
By the end of the workshop, we had identified five main purposes of Pride, as well as best and worst practice criteria.
Informal Survey
As part of my outcomes work, I created an informal survey to rank different NYC pride events on a scale of 1 to 5 based on the individual’s perception of how much that event embodied or demonstrated each of the identified purposes from my research.
In addition to the ranking, I decided to include some basic demographic information, while leaving all of the questions optional. After some consideration on the best format and questions to include I settled on:
Gender Identity (blank space)
Sexual Identity (blank space)
Race (selection)
Age Group (selection)
I posted the survey on the same queer Facebook groups I had advertised the workshop, as well as to my own networks. I received a Facebook comment that was upset that there was not a separate space to indicate if someone is transgender or cisgendered or neither.
I deeply regret that I caused any pain or anger or continued erasure, especially in what should be a safe queer space. I now understand the point the respondent was making and how my first comment was inappropriate. Pride has a long history of not included the trans community, to the point of being anti-trans. By not including a space for people to claim a trans, cis, or neither identity, I was minimizing and erasing the trans identity and the potential to differentiate how a cis person and a tran persons’ experiences at pride may be significantly different.
This interaction led me to gut check the perspectives my research and process had centered. My goal was to represent the opinion of all identities in the queer community and I recognize that has not been accomplished. Unfortunately, as a class project that was quickly approaching the end of the semester, I have not been able to continue or gather the perspectives I have identified as absent. Although not an acceptable alternative, I have attempted to contextualize my findings throughout this site and call out where voices are missing.
Interviews
I conducted two interviews following the workshop, which I utilized to gain a more diverse understanding of Pride, as well as to gut check the five purposes of Pride that emerged from the workshop.
My first interview was with one of the main organizers of the Dyke March, identified here as A.T. My second interview was a NYC journalist, Alex, who identifies as Bi+ and often focuses on queer issues. Below are some of the main takeaways from my interviews that I have influenced my outcomes.
A.T. has never attended an Official NYC Pride March and shared with me their practice of creating their own safe space on Pride Sunday with their queer community, as well as their experience as an organizer of the Dyke March. When I shared the five purposes of Pride with them, they said they would add a sixth purpose that explicitly calls out diversity. A.T. also called my attention to other marches such as the Trans Day of Action. I was able to attend a Community Safety Training for Trans Day of Action, which I make a note of below.
Alex has attended the Official NYC Pride March; however, in recent years generally attends parties and celebratory events rather than the march itself. She called out to me that queer parties and gatherings are important themselves. The Stonewall Riots happened because of police action against queers gathering, drinking, and partying together. While this doesn’t mean that every party is a political action, it did highlight the importance and role of celebration within Pride.
One point where A.T. and Alex differed in opinion is the role or acceptability of non-queers at Pride. A.T. does not see a role for straight people at Pride, while Alex says she is okay with straight people attending Pride as long as it is respectful. Alex did note that she thinks it is important for straight people attending Pride to be knowledgeable about the history of the march, which is not really communicated in today’s march.
Informal Research aka life experiences
After concluding my ‘formal’ research, I had a series of experiences that I’ve classified ‘informal’ research. While events that I undertook as part of my personal life, both were informed by and informed my approach and research. The first was the Trans Day of Action Community Safety Training, hosted by the Audre Lorde Project, and the second was a visit to an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, “Nobody Promised You Tomorrow: Art 50 Years After Stonewall.”
As the Training was a private event that I attended in a personal capacity I am not going to provide details regarding the content; however, I will speak briefly to the impact it had on my view towards my research. The Training provided individuals with the capacity to act as Community Safety volunteers during the Trans Day of Action march.
Again, as with at the Reclaim Pride meeting, the dynamic between police and the attendees was a central theme. The Training also reaffirmed the importance of centering and uplifting transgender and queer people of colors’ (QPOC) voices within the queer community and the discussion around Pride.
The exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum showcased transgender and QPOC art and was incredibly inspirational. It was another reminder of the work that needs to be done to recognize their work.
Both of these experiences have helped me shape how I have presented, contextualized, and re-analyzed my research.
Outcomes
I ended the project by drafting a series of practice recommendations and how to be an effective ally. Learn more on the project website below.