Pride Poem by Sibel Sayiner And Violet Trachtenberg

San Francisco Pride 2013
After spending ten minutes watching corporate floats and cis men parade by
In their rainbow logos and paraphanalia
I'm acutely aware that everyone in the stands is white
The crowds are cheering for marriage equality,
Laughing as though the movie for gay liberation is rolling its final credits
Crunch, crunch, crunch
The pride parade marches down market street
Verizon, Toyota, bank of the west
Let's call it…free market street
With the floats trickling down the financial district to the tenderloin
Nike's float asks us to #Be True
Be True to the invisible hand of capitalism
Don't worry, that's mother's indentured labors stitching your flags, your t-shirts, your rainbow-colored basketball shoes
Because look—it's wearing a wedding band
The crowds are screaming, delighted that between Doma and Citizens United,
The 479 male-owned Fortune 500 companies can marry each other now
At the festival, San Francisco police monitor the entrance because homeless people have nothing to be proud of
This plaza, most days, is a safe place to sleep
Now, only a place to be shooed
The policemen smile, hoping maybe, if they protect enough fruits, we'll forget about fruitvale
Hoping the many colors of pride will cover the black of Oscar Grant
Let's take a moment to dismantle the six colors of pride
First, there's that sunset red, the bright tange of blood when an emperor demands you give up your religion, your language, your skin, and if you do not comply we will put you in
Orange, twisting you into a criminal, stripping you of the sunlight
Yellow, like the gold they exploited from you, swallowing every dollar of
Green you ever made and called it justice
Called the blue of the freezing hands of those queer kids on the street corners justice
Witness the purple bruises of pride struggle forgetting how it shines so proudly against their white skin
There's more to celebrate than a parade
There are voices to be heard that cannot make their way to these limousines
Queer people don't need sponsors, don't need spectators,
We need immigration justice, and racial justice,
We need employment and homes
And equal access to healthcare
San Francisco Pride, with your corporate, conglomerate, co-sponsors
And policemen lining the sidewalks
Whose equality are you celebrating anyway?