They brought banners and placards emblazoned with slogans, including for the Salvadoran and U.S. governments to free a gay man the U.S. deported to a notorious prison there. They rallied and marched from the foot of Market Street to San Francisco City Hall, all the while saying “no” to President Donald Trump and his administration.
The People’s March: Fight Fascism for Democracy took place Saturday, April 12, and saw more than 1,000 people gather at Embarcadero Plaza. The crowd represented the full spectrum of the LGBTQ rainbow, and they were protesting not only the policies of Trump, but also the actions of billionaire Elon Musk, who oversees the Department of Government Efficiency. Since Trump took office, DOGE has fired thousands of federal workers and cut off funding for HIV, cancer, and Alzheimer's research, among other reductions.
People were also enraged by the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has deported hundreds of people without due process, including people who were in the United States legally, such as Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and gay makeup artist Andry Jose Hernández Romero, who had been in a detention facility in San Diego awaiting a pre-arranged asylum hearing when he was whisked away to a Salvadoran prison. (Politico reported that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office Monday he would not return Abrego Garcia, whom the U.S. government admits was mistakenly deported, dimming the hopes of seeing Hernández Romero released.)
“How can I return him to the United States? Am I going to smuggle him? Of course I’m not going to do it,” Bukele said while sitting beside Trump. “The question is preposterous.” (The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the Trump administration needs to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.)
At the People’s March, a number of people were holding up signs that read, "Free Andry," and "Bring Andry Home," referring to Hernández Romero. Concern is that Hernández Romero's life is in danger for as long as he remains in the prison. An effort to see Pride organizations across the U.S. name Hernández Romero an honorary grand marshal to keep the issue in the minds of people and the media has been met so far with muted reaction, except in San Francisco, where Suzanne Ford, the executive director of SF Pride, last week declined the request made by longtime gay rights icons Cleve Jones and Nicole Murray Ramirez.
Attendees at the march supported Hernández Romero.
"I'm here against my will," said Blair Camp, a 74-year-old gay man. "I did this in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and I never thought we'd have to do this again. Free Andry!"
The People’s March, which included speeches, chanting, and a march up Market Street, was organized by well-known drag activists Alex U. Inn and Juanita MORE! The two founded the People’s March that occurs during Pride Month in 2020 and expanded the march’s brand for the pro-democracy event. (An LGBTQ-themed People’s March is planned for June 22, Inn and MORE! said in promoting the democracy event.)
"When we organized the first People's March in 2020 we knew we had to represent people of color," MORE! told the Bay Area Reporter as the crowd was gathering. "That was the year of the George Floyd killing and COVID. Everyone had anxiety doing the march then. It feels just as important today, especially with everything that's happening with our government. It's going to feel really good today to have everyone who feels as I do be together."
There was a program of speakers before the march, but before that began, drag artist Landa Lakes led the crowd in an invocation acknowledging the Native people who lived here before the settlers came.
More than a protest
MORE! explained that the march was more than simply a protest.
"Today we are not just gathering in protest, we are also gathering in love," said MORE! as she addressed the crowd. "These are people that love all of us and each of us for who we are. That is most important. Thank you for being with us today, I appreciate it very much."
The next speaker was Don Romesburg, a gay man who’s a professor of women and gender studies at Sonoma State University. Romesburg said he was being fired because the university is eliminating the LGBTQ studies and women's studies departments. He spoke of how LGBTQ people were being erased by the Trump administration, including the removal of the words “transgender” and “queer” from the Stonewall National Monument’s web page.
"It's easy to feel powerless, but I'm here to tell you, fight back," he said. "Take action to preserve queer and trans knowledge not just for our community but for everyone. Everyone deserves a full education, including an education of LGBTQ+ histories. Fight for free and open public libraries, and go to savewgs.com and write to California's legislatures and demand that they preserve LGBTQ inclusive K-12 and college education. California must be the model for the rest of the United States. Tell our politicians to stand up, tell our governor who has abandoned our community to stand up. And finally, create queer and trans knowledge as widely as you can."
The crowd applauded and cheered Romesburg's words.
The crowd also heard from Aida, a 10-year-old Black girl who said that she doesn't understand why people are so mean to each other, as well as why health care is being taken away from people, and why innocent people are being arrested and deported.
"I want to tell everyone that being kind is important," she said. "I want to say that everyone deserves to be safe and happy. I want to tell everyone that we need to celebrate each other's differences and work together for a better world."
Former District 3 supervisor Aaron Peskin also spoke. Peskin, a straight ally, reminded people that silence equals death, referring to the battle cry of ACT UP, the AIDS activist organization that was active in the 1980s and 1990s and which still exists.
The next speaker was Xochitl, an immigrant activist and drag artist.
"I am the illegal alien that is taking your jobs," Xochitl said. "I am the dreamer taking your taxes. I am the undocumented immigrant that's draining your economy. And America, I am the drag queen that's turning your kids gay. I am who you're supposed to be scared of. I am the reason you can't afford your rent. I am the reason your life is too expensive. America, you have been fed a lie. The political and economic elite are distracting you, they're blaming me, while they run off, play tennis and run off with the country's wealth. Wealth and income inequality are the biggest threats in our lifetime. Not immigrants. Not drag queens."
Xochitl then called on people not to forget the immigrants in the queer community.
"Make so much noise that they can't ignore us," she said, as the crowd applauded and cheered once again.
The program continued as the Black national anthem was sung by Ariel Bowser and Lambert.
Inn thanked U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D), the New Jersey lawmaker who recently spoke on the Senate floor for over 24 hours, expressing his contempt for Trump and the administration. Once again, the crowd cheered.
"Thank you, senator, for showing us what ‘good trouble’ really means," Inn said, referring to what the late congressmember John Lewis (D-Georgia) used to say and which Booker referenced in his remarks. "Thank you for reminding us that sometimes the only way to be heard is to disrupt the status quo. To stand firm in our convictions and to refuse to be silent."
Inn referred to themself as a Black female presenting person, a nonbinary elder who refuses to be confined.
"A voice who will not be silenced," they proclaimed.
Inn fought tears as they said, "Everything I am is being questioned in this country. So we cannot be silent. Even in the darkest moments, remember this: we are not defined by the forces that seek to diminish us."
Trans activist Honey Mahogany, the executive director of the San Francisco Office of Transgender Initiatives, was the last to speak.
"We have seen the way this current federal administration has systematically undermined and attacked every one of this nation's principles," said Mahogany, a former chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party. "Every one of the people's protections. Every one of our rights. Right now trans people specifically, and immigrants specifically, are the canaries in the coal mine. And we really need to think about that because there are a whole lot of miners in here, and the canaries aren't dead yet, we're still flapping around and screeching.
“We need to address the problem before those canaries die, and guess what, once we die, everyone else is next,” Mahogany continued. “Once we go down, it's on to the next community and the next community. We've seen the attacks on every single community here. We are all in this together. Our liberation is collective. So thank you for being here, let's make this one hell of a march and protest and let this not be the last, let this be the first, or the fifth, or the hundredth, every day that this administration tries to take something away from us, we will return to the streets and fight back."
Mahogany then led the crowd in a chant of "We the people united will never be defeated!"
Peacefully marching
After Mahogany spoke the crowd took to the streets to march, led by the Dykes on Bikes.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the drag nun philanthropic group, were out in force as the marching began. The march was loud but entirely peaceful. Market Street was shut down as buses and trolleys parked on the side of the street so that the marchers could pass. Some bus drivers honked their horns in support of the marchers as passengers on one bus applauded. There were more "Free Andry" signs and signs that proclaimed "Dykes against fascism," and "No! In the name of humanity we refuse to accept a fascist America." There was also a large banner that proclaimed "Drag up! Fight Back!"
People chanted "Fight Back!" and "This is what democracy looks like" as onlookers cheered.
The march went up Market Street from the Embarcadero to the former Twitter building at Market and 10th streets, where everyone stood for a moment of silence. (Musk owns X, formerly Twitter, and he vacated the San Francisco office space last year.) The march then continued to Van Ness Avenue, turning right onto Van Ness and up to City Hall where the march concluded on City Hall's Polk Street side. There was a loudspeaker playing dance music and people were invited to dance for as long as they liked. The mood was jubilant. People felt energized to have stood up to Trump.
"Queer and trans people deserve equal rights in the USA," Castro LGBTQ Cultural District Director Tina Aguirre, a genderqueer Latinx person, told the B.A.R. "I'm here to show that the Castro LGBTQ Cultural District centers us during these challenging times. We have mobilized before, and it's important that we mobilize now. Get out in the streets, do what you can."
The B.A.R. also spoke with Martin Rawlings-Fein, a co-chair of the Alice B. Toklas LGBTQ Democratic Club.
"We're here to resist the current administration and everything they've put forward so far," said Rawlings-Fein, a 47-year-old bisexual transman. "I'm heartened by this community that's shown up. They're going to keep pushing, and we need to keep resisting, and we need to sustain our joy. Alice is here and we're ready."
