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The march was announced June 3 by Christopher Street West, the organization that produces LA Pride, as a solidarity march with Black Lives Matter.īut the Black Lives Matter Los Angeles group never endorsed the event, and numerous leaders within the Black LGBTQ community said Christopher Street West - long criticized for being too white and too corporate - did not communicate with them before announcing it. The All Black Lives Matter march, though, came about amid controversy.Ĭritics said they believed organizers appropriated the Black Lives Matter cause in order to hold a “mini Pride” after festivities for the 50th anniversary of LA Pride were suspended because of the pandemic. “It brings my heart much joy,” she said of the march. It would have been another killing, another Black killing.” If we weren’t forced to stay in the house, we wouldn’t have seen what happened. “I believe this is the universe working,” she said. Leach said she believed that because Americans were forced to put their lives on pause during the pandemic, they could not ignore Floyd’s death and the racism the country has always struggled with. Being Black and a woman in America, it is really tough.” “You have to put your Blackness first,” she said. It was rare, she said, that she got to make a statement for both parts of her identity. “This is an eye-opener for everyone.”Įyvonne Leach stood on Hollywood Boulevard, wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt and a pair of feathery, rainbow-colored wings.Īs a Black lesbian, Leach, 40, of Inglewood, said she’d had to fight doubly hard against discrimination. We just wish they would follow a different method,” said Austin, who is gay and Black. Greg Austin, 31, said the massive turnout was evidence of a desire for change that’s been building for years amid high-profile police shootings across the country. On the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a white woman with a rainbow flag draped over her shoulders blew bubbles as she passed David Hasselhoff’s star, and a Black man passed with a cardboard sign that said, “Black Trans Lives Matter.” A portrait of Floyd flashed on a screen outside the legendary TCL Chinese Theatre. Hollywood Boulevard was closed to traffic, and there was little police presence.