This year, celebrating Pride feels like a necessary act of defiance and rebellion.
As our country comes together to celebrate Pride month, there is much to be concerned about. Relentless attacks – legal, legislative and on the very lives of the LGBTQ+ community – remind us of the immensity of the work still to be done. Yet even as we face such brutal and un-American assaults on our civil liberties, this Pride month also brings much to be hopeful about. From the initiatives announced today by President Biden to the remarkable activism of community advocates and allies in cities and towns both large and small, this Pride season is also a season of perseverance.
From Public Justice client Camika Shelby, who brought change and hope to LGBTQ youth in the deep south by turning the tragedy of her son Nigel’s death into a clarion call for progress, to the legal advocates battling and winning the essential fights to overturn heinous state laws that criminalize our very existence, we see that there is a role, and a responsibility, we must each bring to this urgent movement for progress.
This year, celebrating Pride feels like a necessary act of defiance and rebellion – a next, vital chapter in the uprising that began at the Stonewall Inn and that continues today inspired by, and thanks to, those first rebels who refused to stay in the shadows one day longer. Today, we are called on to once again make history, even as others seek to erase it. It is an existential call to action we cannot afford to ignore for now, more than ever, our very lives depend on answering it.
