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Press contact: press@phillysocialists.org
Our statement regarding our comrade’s arrest:
On Sunday June 10, a comrade, ReeAnna Segin, was arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights by allegedly attempting to burn a “Blue Lives Matter” flag at the Philly Pride March. She was charged with arson, causing/risking a catastrophe, and other misdemeanors, and released from CFCF (a men’s prison) at approximately 5pm on Monday.
Several groups, including Philly Socialists and Philly for REAL Justice, helped to raise bail funds and legal support for her. We’re going to give ReeAnna some space, but we’ll let you know if she decides to make a public statement to the media. We cannot release much information at this time, but this incident highlights why cops should not be allowed at any pride parades.
As an institution, the police have no place at Pride. Police presence at Pride represents an affront to LGBTQ people and people of color, who daily face threat of unjustified, brutal violence and death at the hands of the police state. We must not forget the courageous work of trans women of color activists like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, whose actions at Stonewall against the dehumanizing systems of police oppression laid the groundwork for Pride and for the LGBT movement as a whole.
While there have been social and legal improvements for LGBT people since Stonewall, these improvements have disproportionately gone to cis white people. Trans people and queer people of color still face tremendous threats of violence from the state. Though Pride has become a celebration of all that the LGBT movement has accomplished, we cannot forget that the struggle against state oppression is far from over.
Philly Socialists stands in solidarity with all queer and trans comrades, and against the capitalist police state!
