Pride 2015 – the summer when love wins! With the Obergefell v. Hodges decision, we witness the long arc of history bend a little more toward justice. We know our community has much work left to do on many issues, but on the issue of marriage equality we can finally and truly claim this victory!
This victory has been at least 50 years in the making and we are grateful to the thousands who have made and continue to make that progress possible. We are proud to celebrate and remember.
We remember and are grateful for the tremendous bravery of hundreds of early trailblazers who dared to live their lives openly and to love bravely. We remember our Stonewall and transgender community friends who stood and fought, and launched a movement. We remember the bravery of those who fought the Prop. 8 ballot initiative, and the pain and devastation when it passed. We remember the long struggle to end Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. We remember the hundreds of thousands of people who have given their time, energy, creativity and dollars that have fueled and sustained this movement.
And as we celebrate, we remember too, the battles still ahead. Equality and justice cannot leave any of our community members behind.
There are out, proud trans heroes showing us all that happiness and success are real possibilities. There are more and more trans youth out, proud and visible, and more brave, supportive parents. The trans community is finding its voice and making real progress toward equality. Yet for many, the day they reveal their true selves is not a simple day of triumph and freedom. It’s the day their family and friends begin to abandon them. It’s the day they lose their jobs. It’s the day part of their own community turns against them and the world becomes a threatening place that must be carefully navigated. For far too many trans women of color – it ends in death. We can’t leave any behind.
More and more brave LGBTQ youth are coming out publicly and finding support from their families and communities. But too often they do not find the love and support they need. Too often they are still kicked out of their homes, bullied in school, caught up in a social service system that does not understand how to help them. Too often they are alone, or believe they are. We can’t leave any behind.
We can celebrate the tremendous progress research and medicine have provided for HIV disease! We know that – if properly treated – HIV is a manageable disease and that someone who has the disease can live a long, healthy life. We know that, if someone living with HIV is able to access medication and reach undetectable viral levels, there will be very low risk for transmitting the virus to anyone else. We know that, for those not living with HIV, there are multiple successful methods for prevention. But too many still don’t have access to adequate medical care and medication, and too many are still afraid. We can’t leave any behind.
We know that our diversity is one of our community’s great strengths. In San Diego more than 50 percent of our community are of color and/or undocumented immigrants. Statewide, the undocumented community pays more than $3.2 billion dollars in fees and taxes into our economy every year, yet most are unable to access affordable, quality health care and other services. We can’t leave any behind.
We know the struggles of our African American community members as they are challenged again and again by a system that is weighted against them in many insidious ways, and must continually assert that #Blacklivesmatter. Who would have imagined we would have a constitutional right to marriage equality before the Confederate flag is finally banished to museums? We can’t leave any behind.
Federal LGBT civil rights protections, trans rights and acceptance, ending new HIV cases, youth protections and school safety, racial justice, comprehensive immigration reform and more. This is the work we still have to do. We can’t leave any behind.
