Why We March - Balmung Pride Vigil 2018
This very night, two years ago, in the city of Orlando, Florida, something truly awful happened. A lone gunman entered the Pulse Nightclub - a refuge for the local LGBT+ community. He moved through the room, firing on crowds of dancers indiscriminately, only hoping to kill as many people as he could… simply because of who they were. It shattered our sense of security, and tested our will as a community.
I remember sitting at a bar in Asbury Park, NJ the night after, talking to some older members of our community about hate and murder to try and better understand how this horrible event happened, and I heard a lot of stories. Stories I’d share with you, that you might understand our history - in suffering and triumph. Stories from a different time, in a neighborhood called Greenwich Village, on Christopher Street: an avenue at the time known as a home to prostitutes and gay bars. A place for those society considered “other.”
They remember hearing stories of the Cooper Do-nuts Riot in LA, 1959. Of drag queens and transgender women fighting back against a raid by the SFPD at Compton’s Cafeteria in 1966. In 1969 the stories weren’t so far away… in 1969 the story unfolded on Christopher Street. Police raided the Stonewall Inn bar and had female police officers frisk anyone appearing female to make sure they weren’t ‘men dressed as women,’ an offense that could earn you an arrest in the 1960’s. That day, June 28th, 1969, marked the first day of the Stonewall Riots, and would mark the beginning of a radical movement for our civil rights.
The very next year, on June 28th, 1970, a march took place on Christopher Street with simultaneous marches in LA and Chicago - these were the first Pride Parades ever to occur in the United States. By June of 1971, Pride Parades were thrown in Boston, Dallas, and Milwaukee with similar pride events occuring as far away as West Berlin, Stockholm, and Paris. We didn’t stop at public demonstration - we grew. In 1978, the city of San Francisco elected Harvey Milk, a gay man, to the Board of Supervisors. Milk was instrumental in the design and passage of a law that outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation, and went on to talk out against the Briggs Initiative - a law designed to make the firing of gay or gay-supporting teachers mandatory in California. Milk was assassinated in office. Inspired by Milk, Gilbert Baker designed the rainbow flag as a symbol for our rights. The next year, 1979, LGBT+ activists marched on Washington DC carrying that flag - a symbol of hope born out of loss.
In 1996, Judge Chang in the US state of Hawaii ruled that the state could not discriminate against same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses, making Hawaii the first state to acknowledge the rights of same-sex couples. In 2011, the Obama Administration repealed ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ allowing servicemembers to openly serve in the US Military. In June, 2015, Obergefel v. Hodges was decided by the US Supreme Court, legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. June 24th, 2016, the Stonewall Monument was dedicated as a national heritage site in remembrance of the LGBT Civil Rights movement 47 years after after the riot and ensuing marches earned same-sex couples the right to marry in the United States. In nearly 50 years, we marched from Christopher Street to the steps of the Supreme Court, and we won a landmark battle. One of many we have fought, and will continue to fight in pursuit of equality.
Our past is marred with oppression, targeted violence against our leaders, and now by the spectre of indiscriminate murder as we saw so recently in 2016. With our flag stained by the blood and tears of those wounded or killed - from Christopher Street, to The Castro, to Pulse - we march. We marched then to show that we could be proud of who we are, and that we belonged fully in society regardless of our gender identities or our sexualities.
We march now to remember why we had to march then. We march now to remember all the times we were beaten, battered, and told that we didn't belong. We march now to remember the sacrifices that our brothers and sisters made to earn us the freedom to be who we are today. We march now to show those who think we are less-than that we will never, never, never lay down and get beaten again. We march because the day we stop, hate wins. We march together, with absolute moral certitude, to tell the next generation that love will always prevail.
That is why we have Pride… to remember the struggles we have faced to get here, and to show the world that we will continue to march for the basic dignity that all people deserve.
All my thanks to @eaotheelf for organizing this, and to everyone in this community for coming! Please enjoy your Pride, but never forget what we’ve faced, and how far we’ve come