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QuickTake:
The Saturday morning rally and march was organized after Eugene Pride canceled their usual event, citing a distrust of Eugene police as reason to not pursue a permit for the march. The replacement rally and march went smoothly, as celebrants walked from Kesey Square to the Lane Events Center.
Pride flags, protest signs, colorful outfits, singing Raging Grannies and political speeches filled Kesey Square on Saturday morning, as local activists married celebrations of queer Pride with calls to action.
Chief among them: demanding the resignation of Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner.
The call for Skinner to resign was a recurring sight on protest signs at the rally and march and on a large banner that read “EPD HATES QUEERS,” during a week when Eugene Pride organizers went public with their distrust of local police in an extended statement.
The statement spoke to general distrust of the department after the revelation of a now-former EPD officer’s use of racist and misogynistic language on body camera footage, and specific allegations of a double standard in enforcing public speech laws between evangelicals and queer protesters.
Eugene Pride organizers said the decision to cancel their kickoff rally and march came after a number of committee members putting on the event said they would not work with the Eugene Police Department to obtain a permit.
But after they canceled the rally and march, details of an unaffiliated Eugene Rad Pride replacement rally and march at the same time and place started to spread via local social media accounts and threads during the week.
Saturday morning, attendees poured out of Kesey Square and into the streets, dancing and drumming to the Lane Events Center.
Jonah Wattles-Dunbar, a 28-year-old Eugene resident, said he had gone to the Eugene Pride rally in previous years and was disappointed to hear it had been canceled before the replacement rally details began to spread.
“I’ve never been a fan of the police,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that they can’t support us, but we also really can’t support them either, because they have shown us time and time again that they’re not our friends as much as we want to be friends to every person, every human, or whatever. It’s hard when they don’t support us.”
Why was this a replacement rally?
Eugene Pride’s statement explained organizers canceled the original kickoff and rally over what they saw as a double standard when it comes to law enforcement treatment of protesters using amplified noise.
Evangelical Christian protesters from Roseburg, who are frequent fixtures with megaphones at the Eugene Saturday Market and Eugene Pride, are typically allowed to protest, with police citing First Amendment rulings protecting the content of speech in a public square.
Queer community members said that doesn’t stack up with how local and federal law enforcement officials have treated protesters at the Eugene Federal Building.
Anna Lardner, one of two plaintiffs in a lawsuit criticizing the use of “loud or unusual noise” regulations against protesters on sidewalks around the federal building, is one of the members of the rally and march committee who started raising questions about how appropriate it would be for Eugene Police to be at Pride.
Adding to the tension was that Eugene Pride organizers were told that, without a permit, volunteers would technically be engaging in disorderly conduct if they were in the street, stoking concerns of arrest during the march.
Eugene police chief Chris Skinner said in a press conference Wednesday, June 24, that the characterization of EPD as arresting protesters for disorderly conduct during large-scale unpermitted events was not fair, and that police had expected a “rinse and repeat” of what it considered a successful event last year.
“It’s really unfortunate at this point we’re at a place where part of that has been canceled, that is not of our choosing,” he said. “They are free, much like many people are free, to do whatever they want.”
At the rally Saturday, speakers touched on the political resistance that’s been a part of Pride since its beginnings. Queer Pride flags, Palestinian flags and protest signs peppered the crowd as different speakers took the microphone.
Multiple speakers directly addressed the week’s tension with EPD. Kamryn Stringfield, a local lesbian and transgender activist who was heavily involved with the Eyes Off Eugene campaign against Flock license-plate reader cameras, invoked the June 1969 Stonewall riots when queer youth in New York City physically resisted a police raid as a point of comparison.
“We should remember that Stonewall didn’t happen in a vacuum. It happened during the civil rights movement, during the protests against the genocidal war in Vietnam, and during an era of mass upheaval against imperialism and oppression at home and abroad,” she said. “Today’s march and the political context surrounding it is no different.
“As you all know, the ‘official’ Eugene Pride sponsored march and rally for today was cancelled due to EPD’s gross non-cooperation, threats of charges to marchers and the lack of trust that the community broadly has with the department right now,” she added. “Community members and organizations had to meet the classic essence of Stonewall and the first years of Pride and organize the march ourselves, without a permit or any permission.”
The scene at the rally and march
The march from Kesey Square to Lane Events Center, where the formal Eugene Pride festivities are taking place, went smoothly.
Police presence was negligible, aside from an EPD SUV driving past Kesey Square during the rally.
Attendees marched to drumbeats and danced through the streets. People on porches and shopping at the Saturday Market cheered in support when the march passed by.
No counterprotesters disrupted the rally and march, unlike last year when evangelical Christians from Roseburg — the same group that often protests at the Eugene Saturday Market — confronted some Pride rally attendees.
Volunteers on bicycles directed the flow of the march, physically blocking off traffic at intersections for a few minutes at a time as the group — estimated at more than 100 — passed by.
When the march reached the Lane Events Center, a drum-and-dancing circle broke out outside of the event gates, one last burst of energy before the marchers dispersed to celebrate Pride.
