Washington’s annual Capital Pride Parade was disrupted by protesters upset with the hosting organization’s ties to big business and the police, forcing the parade to reroute on Saturday.
Marchers organized by No Justice No Pride obstructed the path of Capital Pride marchers, clashing with the parade’s supporters in the streets of Northwest Washington, according to accounts.
The Washington Post reported:
NJNP finds fault with Pride and Capital Pride Alliance, the nonprofit organization behind the festival. Pride sponsors include large corporations such as Wells Fargo, recently condemned by members of the D.C. Council for its lending to private prisons and investment in the Dakota Access Pipeline, and weapons manufacturer Northrop Grumman. Another sponsor, Maryland Live Casino, is owned by the Cordish Companies, which has ties to the Trump administration.
Those complaints recall the party’s struggle to unite around Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primary in 2016, leading to a tense convention where similarly-aligned activists who supported Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., protested her nomination.
But it gets worse.
No Justice No Pride, described by the Washington Post as an “activist collective”, also protested Capital Pride’s partnership with D.C. police. The organization circulated a petition including six demands of Capital Pride, one of which called on the parade to “take a strong position against state violence and end its endorsement of MPD by no longer inviting police officers to march in its parade.”
“We deserve to celebrate Pride without being forced alongside the Police who kill us,” an organizer said.
Anyone who pays attention to the LGBT rights movement knows that a serious portion of its efforts are dedicated to fighting higher rates of violence against members of its community. Shunning the protection of law enforcement, then, seems remarkably counterproductive. The Washington Blade reported that the clashing parades on Saturday “came close to fisticuffs a few times.”
The Democratic Party is pushing the narrative that its base is historically unified, brought together by a shared opposition to President Trump. But observers need look no further than the Left’s struggle to come together on issues that have nothing to do with Trump to see that just isn’t the truth.
As cracks in the Democratic Party deepen, Capital Pride’s change of course on Saturday, forcibly rerouted by far Left obstruction, may prove to be a symbolic harbinger of challenges to come.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
