Our community once again is preparing to come together for our annual Pride celebration. That means it’s time yet again to reflect on a question that we are often asked.
You know this question well: “Is Pride still relevant?”
By all accounts, the advances that our LGBTQ community has made just in the last several years justify our jubilation. Our successful strides make that question a fair one.
We finally have marriage equality across the entire country. Our military servicemembers can serve openly and marched in uniform in last year’s parade. Just weeks ago, President Barack Obama designated the location of the Stonewall uprising as a national monument. More states are following California’s lead and rejecting the harmful practice of so-called “conversion therapy.”
While those advances were a long time coming, when you think about it, it’s incredible how fast the dominoes fall when they begin to fall.
And yet, often when embattled communities make these kinds of breakthroughs for equality, we see and feel the pushback so acutely.
We have seen it happen amid the movement for women’s equality and the continued fight for reproductive rights.
We have seen it as we push to reform our immigration laws to allow for hard-working people to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation and having their families torn apart.
We have seen it as we’ve experienced the loss of voting-rights protections, which predominately impacts the nation’s African American and Latino communities.
We have seen it as certain politicians have opportunistically exploited an understandable fear of terrorism and stoked an irrational backlash against American Muslims.
And we are currently engaged in what many consider to be the last frontier of LGBTQ civil rights as we work to secure equality for our transgender brothers and sisters. Our opponents are pushing back in places like Mississippi and North Carolina by telling transgender members of our community that they must use bathrooms that correspond to their biological sex at birth.
Is Pride still relevant? The answer is unequivocal: Absolutely!
Nearly 50 years ago, the Stonewall uprising was a moment that ignited a movement. Similarly, the massacre that occurred June 12 at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando is a moment that reminds us as a nation, not just one community, that we have a lot of work to do.
We must think about all of the distinct battles for civil rights as one overarching movement: The safety and protection of all people. This includes members of the LGBTQ community, Latinos, African Americans, Muslims, women – everyone who is still fighting for freedom and equality.
We can also add to this grand movement anyone who is fighting passionately for common-sense gun laws. Individuals and organizations in this battle are fighting for the freedom to go to the movie theater, to a nightclub, to school, even to their workplaces without fear of being shot to death – or to kiss their children goodbye in the morning without the worry that they’ll never see them again.
Soon after the Orlando shooting, stories were written about how much good the LGBTQ community can do for the fight for sensible gun laws.
So, here is my appeal to our LGBTQ community – a community I am so proud to be part of and call my family:
Become engaged in the movement for freedom and equality if you haven’t been engaged already.
Re-engage if you’ve stepped away – don’t leave the hard work to others.
Finally, recognize how strong we are when we come together as a community. We can’t fail. Pride matters. Love wins. Community makes us strong when love and pride and community come together. We all win.
