Pride season is officially upon us, but this year isn’t about just about celebration.
Here in the District, streets and storefronts are covered in their typical rainbows. But they’re also surrounded by thousands of protesters who are demanding justice and an end to the police brutality and violence long experienced by Black people in this country.
That is exactly what Pride should always be about. Yes, we can have our (less commercialized) parades and glitter, but only if we honor the protests and the bricks that were thrown to get us to where we are today.
In D.C., organizers have centered Pride this year around the hashtag “#StillWe” as a reminder of our resilience and power as a community. As we look to the weeks of LGBTQ Pride Month ahead, Sexual + Being wanted to take a deep dive into our history and offer up moments that we hope will keep you going — with D.C.’s Pride theme as our guide.
Here are some of the items we came up with. Happy pride!
#StillWe … fight loudly and proudly
The origins of the modern LGBTQ movement are strung together with one common thread: protests, demonstrations, and riots. LGBTQ people have long staged public moments of resistance that would go on to catapult the fight for our community that lives on today.
From the riots in Los Angeles at Cooper Do-nuts in 1959 to the subsequent incidents at Compton’s Cafeteria (1966) and the Black Cat (1967) in San Francisco, and, of course, the riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York City (1969), we have never been handed any right or respect by politely asking for it.
At every turn, we have had to loudly fight to be seen, heard, and respected — and we have transgender women of color like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera to thank for sparking our movement.
That energy is who we are and we must continue to live into it because as Johnson famously stated: “No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us.”
#StillWe … push ourselves to be better
Our community is everywhere and everyone all at once. We are of all ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, gender identities, economic backgrounds, sexualities, and the like.
Yet, discrimination continues to come from inside the LGBTQ house. Racism, sexism, ableism, and transphobia have long run rampant in our community, particularly from cisgender white gay men. You can see it on dating app preferences, in bars and clubs, at pride festivals, in casual conversation, and in countless other places.
It’s long past time that we address and dismantle these beliefs from within.
There is no way to push past the obstacles we’re facing from outside our community from if we, ourselves, remain obstacles to others who are by our side in this fight. Change must come from inside and that includes acknowledging the hate rampant in our community and actively working against it.
If we aren’t actively anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-ableist and anti-transphobic, then we are failing ourselves and holding up progress in the process. That needs to stop.
#StillWe … honor our successes
Do you want to know why Pride has turned into such a party? For many, it’s a “work hard, play hard” kind of situation.
While we still have a tall order ahead in our fight for LGBTQ equality and liberation, there are moments that mean something to all of us that we should uplift because they inspire us personally. Since this is not a real conversation … I guess I’ll share some of mine first?
I am a native Bostonian (don’t worry, I lost the accent) and have been lucky enough to see my home state give our country two historic wins for LGBTQ equality. The first came in 2004 as Massachusetts became the first state to legalize same-sex marriage and the second came just two years ago in 2018 when Massachusetts voters affirmed the rights of transgender people in the nation’s first-ever successful statewide ballot measure on trans issues.
There are countless more I could share like watching the Stonewall Inn get its designation as a National Historic Landmark, hearing President Obama use the word “bisexual” for the first time in a State of the Union during his 2015 address, or seeing Danica Roem make two-time history as an elected transgender official in our backyard of Virginia. But this isn’t about me, it’s about finding what inspires and motivates from our collective history.
#StillWe … vote, vote, and vote again.
No need to wax poetic. Just check your voter registration status and show up in every local, statewide, and federal election.
In closing, remember history isn’t called “history” when the activists and advocates who preceded us were making it. It was just speaking up and out for what’s right. And that power is in all of us.
We, as LGBTQ folks, must keep fighting back against oppression in all its forms and pushing through our struggles powered by our collective resilience, right here in Washington, D.C., — and far beyond it.