After Philly Pride 365 announced their plans to move Pride 2026 to the Ben Franklin Parkway and out of the Gayborhood, many members of the LGBTQ community were rightfully upset. The Gayborhood is the city’s hub for most LGBTQ-owned businesses, health centers, and the home of the Pride festival over the years. Pride is meant to be a free event, accessible to everyone regardless of whether they have $10 to spare for a ticket. Charging people to attend a public event that is meant to celebrate diversity and inclusion is inherently classist and qualifies it as a private event. To protest the new location and stipulations of the festival, thousands of members of the queer community gathered in the Gayborhood to celebrate, including myself.
Prior to 4:30pm, Franky Bradley’s was not charging a cover fee. There were DJs on every floor, and the energy was positive as always. As of 3:30pm, there was a line that wrapped around the corner and down an entire block, stretching to Locust Street. No covers, no upcharge for drinks, just a huge crowd enjoying local talent and dancing. It was a beautiful time.
When I decided to leave around 6pm, I began walking down Walnut Street towards the BSL to go home to South Philly. What I experienced when I got to the intersection of 13th and Walnut is something I don’t think I’ll ever forget.
Philadelphia Police had arrived in swarms. The estimated ratio of cops to citizens was 1:10. PPD officers had attempted to make a human and bicycle barricade to prevent festival attendees from blocking the intersection. No streets were closed in the neighborhood prior to the festival. Buses were still following their normal routes. They were following cars and being trailed by them as well. Cops were not directing traffic but instead screaming at crowds to divert and walk in the flow of traffic instead of crossing the street. At this point I was still trying to leave the area, and I waited until no traffic was coming and the traffic lights signaled for me to cross.
This was when a female police officer picked up her bike and slammed it into my body, hitting my chest, stomach, crotch and thighs, yelling “DO NOT CROSS, WE TOLD YOU MULTIPLE TIMES. WALK THAT WAY” and gestured with her right hand.
It was at this point that I realized I needed to stay a little longer for the sake of others’ safety in the face of aggressive police personnel. I secured a decent vantage point where my view was not obscured by taller people or poles and I observed with my head on a constant swivel.
A group of women in their mid 20s were walking west on Walnut away from the chaos when a male officer stopped them by grabbing one of their shoulders. The woman was pulling a wagon with a cooler inside. The police officer insisted she open the cooler and when she told him that her group of friends were leaving the festival, he grabbed the wagon himself and grabbed a glass bottle which he presumed was filled with liquor and dumped it onto the curb. The woman once again began to walk away. He then again grabbed the wagon and shoved the empty bottle back in. When she tried to dispose of the bottle, it fell on the cement and broke.
Approximately 8-10 cops immediately surrounded her, bombarding her, yelling in her face, and preparing to give her a ticket or detain her.
Handcuffs and tickets were drawn from multiple officers’ uniforms. I took my phone out and began recording. I was told by another male police officer to back up, and that I “had no reason to record this” to which I didn’t respond and kept filming. A few seconds later when officers noticed me, the woman was let go.
Reports were made all over social media that PPD officers began tasing festival attendees and multiple videos showing gangs of cops pushing people into barricades were posted online. PPD also sent officers on horseback to the intersection as well which caused further chaos and trauma to both the animals and the people in the crowd.
Videos and images from the Pride festival on the Parkway show a stark contrast; little to no cops, no violence, and a generally well-organized event atmosphere.
Philadelphia government officials and the PPD chief are to blame for this horrific violence. Surely they knew that the Gayborhood would be just as congested with people as the Ben Franklin Parkway, yet they did nothing to prepare for it but send hundreds of police officers to harass, beat, and traumatize people.
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