The first pride was a riot.
This is what online activists love to say, especially when anything especially horrible happens in our community.
What was originally intended to be a rallying cry of the queers has become a meaningess token slogan.
Jonathan Joss, beloved actor, Indigenous elder, a cherished queer elder was brutally murdered on the first day of Pride Month. The murder is being widely misreported and gone under the radar of many.
While there are tributes for him, especially from the King of the Hill fanbase, there is no outrage.
Are our queer indigenous elders not the very people That online activists say we must protect? Are they not on the fringes of our society, and do their lives not demand our outrage when they are taken?
If Pride is a riot, where are our bricks? Where are our cans? Where is our outrage?
Does Jonathan's story not reflect the brutal reality in which we live?
His home was burned down. His dogs were killed. He died saving the life of his husband.
Does his bravery mean nothing to you? Does his sacrifice not reflect generations of heroism from queer and indigenous peoples. Does his death only mean mourning to you?
If Pride is a riot, why do we take this sitting down. Why do we hold only funerals and not direct action since when has the queer community become so complacent?
Have we torgotten what "rioting" means? Have we grown so used to terror that we allow it to make us complacent? Have we become so stricken with fear that we allow ourselves to stare such injustice in the face and take it lying down?
We praise our black, trans, indigenous and GNC ancestors for their unrelenting bravery, but we use it as a sheild. We allow these stories to comfort us and to make us "Think" we are doing something by remembering them.
But we are not remembering them. Their actions towards liberation are meaningless without continued struggle.
We currently live in a world where queer people are under attack We live in a nation that is dismantling queer rights brick by brick. What are we doing to fight this?
Screaming "Pride is a Riot!" while begging elected officials to do something? Who do you thine Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were rioting against?
If you think there is something that can be saved in this current system, you are WRONG. They want us DEAD. They are killing us, our queer children, our queer elders, with every piece of legislation that is passed.
When will enough be enough? When will you be tired of taking this injustice and moving on?
Our complicity will be our definition if we do not take up the mantle of liberation our elders passed down to us.
Begging for justice is not enough. We must create our own justice. We must rebuild our world where our justice is revolutionary.
The lack of response is revolting. It is a stain on ourselves. This stain can only be cleansed by truly remembering our history and putting its lessons into action.
There is no justice in a corrupt system. There will be no peace until this system burns. Pride will be the first riot that leads to revolution; but that cannot happen unless we throw the first brick.
Rest in Power Jonathan Joss, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Sam Nordquist, Matthew Shepard, and all other queer lives that were taken. Your deaths must be remembered through revolutionary action and nothing less.
