Trans Liberation Marchers Broke Away from Pride Parade to Protest Corporate Sponsors

•  the long-standing erasure of trans people within the so-called “LGBT Community;” 
•  the exclusion of trans women from queer and trans organizing spaces and events; 
•  Atlanta Pride’s history of actively concealing the “official” Trans March by leading it through secluded areas of Piedmont Park; 
•  the pernicious commmodification of Atlanta Pride by banks, liquor companies, 
• discriminatory health insurance companies, telecoms, and other corporate interests; 
•  the frightening, unnecessary and massive presence of Atlanta Police Department officers, who routinely enact homophobic and transmisogynistic violence; 

 
Organizers with TWIST (Trans Women In Solidarity Together) along with associated comrades planned and executed a breakaway Trans Liberation March on Saturday, October 12. 
 
25-30 Liberation Marchers met at the rallying point for the cisgender-led “official” Trans March but took to the streets as the corporate-endorsed march began its unannounced route through depopulated areas of Piedmont Park. 
 
After taking sections of 12th, Juniper, and 14th street, the marchers reentered the park to protest through the entirety of Atlanta Pride’s extensive vendor corridor. 
 
Marchers chanted “we want housing we want jobs, not your fucking jager bombs,” “vodka, banks, cars and beer, get these corporates out of here,” “free CeCe McDonald, free Chelsea Manning,” and “Stonewall was a riot, not a product placement,” among other slogans. 
 
The Liberation Marchers were met with a largely sympathetic and supportive response from the crowds at Pride. Many individuals participated in the march’s anti-corporate chants as it passed them by, and several joined the protest as it proceeded through the vendor corridor. 
 
Liberation March participants consider the protest an unmitigated success and plan to expand it at next year’s Pride.