STATEMENT OF PRIDE
In 1955, during the height of segregation Rosa Parks, a Black woman, took a stand by refusing to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white man; many say this was the symbolic birth of the Civil Rights movement. The 1950s and 1960s in America were peppered with protest and moments of progress. The Civil Rights movement was a response to America not hearing the continued alarm of oppression Black people in the United States were sounding.
In June of 1969, the United States failed to hear the cries of the LGBTQ+ community’s humanity as their livelihoods and lives were taken away in public sight. A pillar of New York City’s LGBTQ+ community, Marsha P. Johnson was a black transgender queer rights activist who fought discrimination; a regular at the Stonewall Inn who gained recognition as one of the first people to push back against police following the raid on the gay bar in June 1969. The Stonewall Uprising were protest against police brutality that sought to bring attention the injustices enacted on a people–the LGBTQ+ community. The Stonewall Uprising were protest that symbolized the start of the LGBTQ+ Civil Rights movement; a movement we must not forget is ongoing today.
As we live further into 2021, we must take stock of this space in which we celebrate Pride and acknowledge that not all our community is alive to celebrate alongside us. We must take time to celebrate and honor all the lives who have been taken in this fight for inclusion and equality in a world that so easily shows us we are not included or equal. We must uplift, in particular, those among us who suffer the greatest number of injustices—our Black transgender community members.
And as we celebrate Pride, we cannot truly be proud without recognizing the Black members of our LGBTQ+ community who were and are fighting for not only LGBTQ+ rights but also fighting for their lives, equity, and justice as Black people in the LGBTQ+ community and the United States.
Let us reclaim our Pride for what it was and always should be: a movement to uplift and center our community so that the world can see our PRIDE!
