Following some communication breakdowns, organizers of the annual LA Pride festival said they will no longer sponsor an anti-racism solidarity march planned for Sunday, but they will participate in and support the procession now billed as All Black Lives Matter.
The 2020 LA Pride Parade was originally scheduled for Sunday, but it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last week, Christopher Street West, which organizes the Pride event, announced it would instead hold a march in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and against police brutality and oppression.
But in a social media post Monday, LA Pride officials admitted that they never coordinated with Black Lives Matter leaders before publicly announcing the solidarity event.
"For that, we apologize to the Black Lives Matter organizers," LA Pride officials wrote in their post. "Conversations did continue and grew to later include leaders from Black Lives Matter LA, and subsequently, an Advisory Board of Black LGBTQ+ leaders has formed to lead the upcoming All Black Lives Matter solidarity march."
Pride officials noted: "We recognize systemic racism, implicit bias and privilege permeates this country, and this includes the history of our organization. We hope to see progress and change from within."
They added, ``Following the All Black Lives Matter march, the CSW Board will continue to work with the new Advisory Board to examine internal policy and further diversity its Board to include more voices and perspectives from the Black LGBTQ+ community.
The march will be held at 10 a.m. Sunday.
