On June 28, 1969 the Stonewall Riots took place in New York City. The following year, led by the efforts of Brenda Howard ( the “mother of pride”) and others, the first pride parade/protest was held to commemorate the event. In 2000 the event received federal recognition as President Bill Clinton issued a proclamation declaring June Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. After 8 years of silence during the Bush administration President Obama subsequently declared June Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month in 2009 and each subsequent year of his presidency.
The last two years of Pride have been marked by distinctly different events. 2015′s Pride was a capped by the joyous celebration of the Obergefell ruling making marriage equality the law of the land. By contrast, 2016′s Pride fell in the shadow of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando.
In 2017 we enter Pride under the reality of a new administration that is quite frankly hostile to the LGBTQ+ community, no matter how they want to spin things. We enter 2017′s Pride witnessing events in Chechnya, Indonesia, and elsewhere around the world; as well as both violence and renewed legislative attacks here at home. We enter the month in the wake of the attacks in Portland, under the threat of continued immigration actions, with a government withdrawing support for critical criminal justice reforms, and launching an assault on research, data collection, healthcare, social services, and critical support in numerous areas that often impact the LGBTQ+ community in significant ways. What I hear from LGBTQ+ folks in 2017 is a great degree of uncertainty and fear for our future, our rights, our safety. But I also see our strength, our resilience, our community. And I see a long history of people willing to step up, speak out, kick ass, and fight for equality for all of us. That’s something to take pride in.
I hope that, especially for the LGBTQ+ youth out there, that rich history and the strength of our community brings a sense of hope. As Harvey Milk so eloquently put, “you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life isn’t worth living.” And as challenging as things have felt of late, I’ve got a hell of a lot of hope.
This year as we go into Pride month, I hope everyone, whether you’re an ally or a member of the LGBTQ+ community, takes some time to reflect on our history, and on the work that still needs to be done. Our history goes back way further than Stonewall (we’ve been around forever) but I think there’s something particularly powerful about the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement coming out of a riot. Pride is not about tidy corporate sponsored rainbow parades - it’s about that moment when the most marginalized members of our community pushed back. And in case it wasn’t clear enough already, we’ve still got (whether they’re literal or metaphorical) bricks and pies to throw.
And as we head into Pride I ask you to consider doing the following:
For those in the LGBTQ+ community:
Be visible. Be as open and proud as you can (comfortable/safely) be. You matter, your presence matters, and your identity and story matters.
Stay intersectional. There are a lot of issues to tackle and a lot of ways in which our identities overlap with those challenges. Our movement is always stronger when we embrace that.
Stay hopeful, stay engaged. We will keep moving forward.
Listen, learn, and be present. Read LGBTQ+ authors, take part in events that you can (like Pride festivities!), and just take a little extra time this month to do your homework and engage with LGBTQ+ voices and issues.
Give. Support LGBTQ+ folks and organizations with your money and/or volunteer hours. And at the very least take a little time to give some love and support to the LGBTQ+ people in your own life. Give us a hug, order us some pizza, whatever you can do.
Stand up. Whether it’s at your school, workplace, community, or just online, stand up and let the world know that LGBTQ+ rights and individuals matter to you.
There’s an interview that Leslie Feinberg did in 1998 with Sylvia Rivera, one of the trans women at the forefront of the Stonewall Riots, where she talks about her experiences, emphasis mine:
“We were not taking any more of this shit…I’m glad I was in the Stonewall riot. I remember when someone threw a Molotov cocktail, I thought: "My god, the revolution is here. The revolution is finally here!” I always believed that we would have a fight back. I just knew that we would fight back. I just didn’t know it would be that night. Of course, we still got a long way ahead of us.“
June 2017 is Pride month, and “we still got a long way ahead of us.” Yes, we do. But we’ll get there. Stay strong, be proud, keep fighting.
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