Hi friends,
Happy National Pride Month! And since San Diego celebrates Pride in July, I consider it a happy Pride season!
Pride is about celebrating the resilient spirit of the LGBTQ+ community while also continuing to demand justice, equality, and dignity. It’s about creating safety and allowing our loved ones in this community a moment of respite in an endless state of vigilance.
For my siblings, Pride is about expanding what it means to live openly and authentically. It’s a daily invitation to be seen, to be heard, to be loved, in the hopes that one more heart might soften.
Pride is a celebration, to be sure. But, it’s so much more than the parades, the rainbow flag-bedazzled t-shirts, and colorful corporate logos splashed across social media. It’s a celebration of the capacity for hope, even when faced with daily reminders of the fight ahead.
It’s a yearly reminder that so many people have fought long and hard for the right to simply exist - to love freely and openly, and to have access to the same rights and protections under the law as everyone else.
It's a chance to reflect on the fact that bigotry will continue to shapeshift and spread if we let it - and how, at this very moment, trans and gender non-conforming Americans are being targeted by cruel and hateful legislation in statehouses all over the country.
Pride is a powerful protest rooted in our shared history of resilience and resistance. From the Stonewall riots that ignited the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement, to the assassination of local hero Harvey Milk, to the long-ignored suffering this community endured by our government’s inaction in the early days of the AIDS epidemic. That resistance and resilience are borne out of necessity - there is no other way.
All this is to say that even with all the progress we’ve made, even with the joy and cheer that Pride Month brings out in all of us, we have to remain vigilant. My siblings and all LGBTQ+ individuals deserve to live authentically and without fear of discrimination - and I hope you’ll be with us, side by side, in this fight, not just for a month or a season, but every day of the year.
Thanks for reading.
-Sara
