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Iraq Veterans Against the
War/Civilian-Soldier Alliance, SF Chapters respond to SF Pride
by IVAW & Civilian Soldier Alliance of SF, Monday Apr 29th, 2013
Iraq Veterans Against the War/Civilian-Soldier Alliance,
SF Chapters Respond to SF Pride’s Rebuff of Bradley Manning: Grand
Marshall NOT Court Martial!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Adele Carpenter +503-860-5168, yesyesready
[at] gmail.com
Josh Shepherd, +415-819-1045, josh.l.shepherd
[at] gmail.com
Becca vonBehren,+518-222-3834, bvonbehren
[at] stp-sf.org
Michael Thurman, +916-202-6060, michael
[at] couragetoresist.org
San Francisco, CA – San Francisco
The beginnings of San Francisco’s gay liberation movement were deeply
tied up with mass mobilizations against the Vietnam war, alongside
thousands of GI resisters, like B. Manning. Iraq Veterans Against the
War San Francisco is disappointed that the board of SF Pride has
betrayed the strong anti-war roots of San Francisco’s LGBT community by
deciding to unseat B. Manning as 2013 grand marshall, and to further
publicly malign Manning.
SF Pride has broken with its own tradition of appointing controversial
community leaders and freedom fighters as grand marshalls, and has
instead capitulated to the interests of its funders and lowest common
denominator politics by making the profoundly undemocratic decision to
reverse Manning’s election. SF Pride’s recent statement also makes
several false assertions about the nature and effects of Manning’s
actions.
As veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (both queers and allies),
we strongly object to the hyberbolic assertion made by Lisa Williams,
president of SF Pride’s Board of Directors, that Manning’s election as
grand marshall is an “insult to every one, gay and straight, who has
ever served in the military of this country,” or that Manning committed
“actions which placed in harms way the lives of our men and women in
uniform.”
Indeed, US servicemembers are placed in harm’s way--not by
whistleblowers and human rights defenders--but by the policies carried
out by the Bush and Obama administrations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
by the broken veteran care system we return to. As veterans, we have
witnessed the effects of U.S. occupations on civilian populations in
Iraq and Afghanistan. As violence racks communities throughout Iraq this
month, we note with sadness that today’s Iraq is less safe for gay
men--as well as women of all sexual orientations--than it was a decade
ago when the U.S. invaded.
Like us, Manning saw the effects of years of U.S. occupation in Iraq.
PFC Manning has been homophobically maligned by the mainstream press as
having impulsively leaked documents in an attempt to “get back at” the
Army following relentless homophobic harassment. In fact, Manning’s
statements reveal an extremely sophisticated analysis of military racism
and the U.S. military’s role in undermining democracy in Iraq and around
the globe. If Manning is guilty of releasing wires to Wikileaks, then
Manning is guilty of actions that have played a role in catalyzing some
of the largest democratic uprisings in recent history. Meanwhile, these
“crimes” pale in comparison to the laundry list of unethical and illegal
activities perpetrated by a number of SF Pride’s funders, including
Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and AT&T.
B. Manning is currently languishing in a military prison in conditions
that the UN and Amnesty International have described as torturous. After
nearly three years, Manning is facing a trial without basic tenets of
due process. B. Manning has risked a great deal on account of the belief
that information mattered--that we, as a public, would do something if
we knew the truth about actions being taken by the U.S. government. Now,
it is up to us to prove Manning right.
Publicly maligning Manning one month before what could be the biggest
court martial proceeding our country has ever seen has broad negative
implications for the future of truth-telling from within the military
ranks, and accordingly for the US population to be informed on the
actions of our nation.
We would like to respectfully call on members of the wider LGBT
community to demand Bradley Manning’s reinstatement as a 2013 SF Pride
Grand Marshall [info
[at] sfpride.org], to take this time to renew commitments to
anti-war politics and solidarity with political prisoners, and to
visibly support B. Manning throughout the ensuing court martial, as well
as the upcoming Pride season.
Sincerely,
San Francisco Chapter of
Iraq Veterans Against the War and
Civilian-Soldier Alliance
The SF LGBT Pride Committee Has Nothing
to Be Proud of Over Bradley Manning
by Adam Richmond, Tuesday Apr 30th, 2013
Glenn Greenwald’s article in The Guardian titled “Bradley
Manning is off limits at SF Gay Pride parade, but corporate sleaze is
embraced” (4/27/13) has internationally publicized the cowardly decision
of the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Pride Celebration
Committee to rescind its election of political prisoner U.S. Army
Private Bradley Manning as a Grand Marshal of the annual Gay Pride
Parade. Manning is the gay service member charged with giving WikiLeaks
thousands of classified documents exposing U.S. atrocities in Iraq,
along with other materials.
The decision to rescind the invitation was made in less
than 24 hours after the president of the American Military Partners
Association (AMPA) made the request to reverse the invitation. The
amazing election of Manning and subsequent and scandalous renunciation
of that election, however, may prove to be the galvanizing point of the
left of the LGBTQ community, which has become increasingly vocal in
criticizing the conservative bastion that promotes a pro-corporate
atmosphere of the Parade and Festival. Indeed, there is the beginning of
a struggle and a political revival of the SF Pride Parade as a vehicle
for raising awareness of progressive political causes because of the
latest Manning decision.
On Monday, April 29, 2013, a demonstration of about 200 supporters of
Bradley Manning outside the offices of SF Pride Committee demanded that
the Board of Directors of SF Pride reinstate Bradley Manning as a Grand
Marshal. Chanting, “You say court marshal, we say Grand Marshal,”
demonstrators heard over a dozen speakers from a variety of groups and
organizations. The possibility of a public rebuke of the SF Pride’s
outrageous decision was evident. Speaking at the event was Daniel
Ellsberg, who in the 1970s revealed the secret bombings by the U.S. of
Cambodia and numerous other atrocities in his famous Pentagon Papers
leak. Ellsberg is a prominent supporter of Bradley Manning and a
cofounder of the Bradley Manning Support Network.
Following Ellsberg in speaking out was famed Iraq war conscientious
objector Stephen Funk, a gay former Marine and co-founder of the Iraq
Veterans Against the War. Funk put the blame for the Iraq/Afghan wars
not only on George Bush, its originator, but Barack Obama, its
continuator. John Caldera, President of the SF Veteran’s Affairs
Commission and longtime activist for Veterans Services in San Francisco
echoed the criticism of the SF Pride’s acceptance of Wells Fargo and
Bank of America as corporate sponsors, who have both put hundreds of
veterans and their families out on the streets, having foreclosed on
their homes. He called for the resignation of SF Pride board president
Lisa Williams and pointed out that while the Board rescinded the
election of Manning as Grand Marshal, placating the wishes of the AMPA,
it did not consider the gay and lesbian Veterans in San Francisco, who
support Manning as Grand Marshal. A number of other critical speakers
were present representing the World Can’t Wait, SF Gray Panthers,
Citizen Soldier, the Harvey Milk LGBT Democratic Club, Veterans for
Peace, Libertarian Party as well as members of a group of emeritus SF
Pride Grand Marshals, the body which put Manning forward as a Marshal.
The event was counter-protested by a handful of supporters of Lisa
Williams and the Log Cabin Republican Club activist Chris Bowman.
The San Francisco Pride Event is one of the largest grassroots events in
the world and attracted approximately 1million attendees in 2012.
Reinstating Bradley Manning as Grand Marshal will not only put the facts
of his case directly in front of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender communities, but in front of the rest of the world as well.
Manning is a political prisoner of the Obama administration. His crime
was to reveal the truth about the U.S. war and occupation. His
revelations put no U.S. service member at risk. They were put at risk by
the imperial war policies of the U.S. government, enshrined by both the
Democrats and the Republicans. The struggle for justice for Bradley
Manning will cause all to take a stand on these wars and occupations.
This may very well be the Dreyfus affair of our generation.
Adam Richmond is a writer and graphic designer for Workers Action, and a
Teamster. He is a long time political activist and lives in San
Francisco. He may be reached at sanfrancisco
[at] workerscompass.org.
http://www.workerscompass.org
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