In Greenwich Village in 1969, the trannies, faggots, and dykes had had enough of hiding in bars and being arrested for deviancy. In that steamy summer police who raided the Stonewall Inn were met by resistance for the first time. The queers stood their ground and flooded the streets, overturning cop cars and setting fire to their oppression. This was the birth of a new era for civil liberties, love, and revolution.
Today, commercialism, AIDS, and apathy have attacked the gay community stronger than any police unit could. We have turned to political platforms, ballots, and target marketing to fulfill our movement, which has become a homogenous adaptation of conservative heterosexual society. Queers once battled against oppressions such as homophobia, violence, and imprisonment, but now gays create institutions of classism, racism, and sexism. We have been consumed by alcohol and drug companies and sell our souls to the highest fashion guru. Gay "pride" has simply become another emotion for corporations and governments to bottle up and sell us in designer special-edition Prada day bags.

It is time to join the progressive movement and fight for freedom for all people. This Pridefest, let's show Pittsburgh that we're queer as fuck, not "queer as folk". Although the theme this year is "Peace through Pride", the festival won't be embracing our struggles against imperialism, the wars, racism, classism, or the many other objects of our oppression. For the first time in Pittsburgh, Gay Shame will converge. The Stonewall revolutionaries would be proud.

queerasfuck 2003 is a weekend of radical events surrounding Pridefest. The main march will meet at Westminster Place on June 21, 2003 at 10am at Westminster Place in Shadyside. See www.thomasmertoncenter.org/RESYST or call 412-363-1877 for detailed schedule information.

RESYST will host a workshop on Wednesday, June 18 at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center called ?No Pride in War?. Then on Friday, June 20 there is a show at Project 1877 (4805 Penn Ave) featuring Crucial Unit and more TBAs. After the main march we will converge in Shadyside at the 5800 block of Ellsworth around noon and continue with street performances until 6pm. We will meet at 8pm and begin our Guerilla gay bar invasion. On Sunday, June 22 we will begin the day at 2pm with video and discussion series on ?Queer Identity? and ?Queer Liberation?. We will end queer as fuck with a brillian show featuring Gravy Train from San Francisco (www.rapbitches.com), Hott Beat from D.C., plus a local band.

We have housing and some food available for out-of-town visitors. Please contact us for more information at www.thomasmertoncenter.org/RESYST, email  pinkbloc@1877.org, or call 412-363-1877.

PS: Please, translate in portuguese and spanish! thanx!!