As members of this human community, we must hold ourselves accountable to each other. We must speak up and speak out when true travesties of injustice are enacted, when real moments of inequity are demonstrated.
The insurgence we saw at the United States Capitol was the reflection of a group of citizens who felt their voices were not being heard, as if their rights were being stripped away; a similar clarion call went out this summer when protests around the Country occurred as citizens were tired of their cries of systemic injustices and inequities not being heard. The distinctions between these moments are stark as the former was ignited and based in fashioned falsehoods and the latter deeply rooted in documented fact.
Citizens of the World watched as these respective groups were dealt with at the hands of various United States law enforcement agencies; citizens of the World saw how distinctly different these respective groups were treated. Citizens of the World are left to question the might of America’s stance as it relates to human equity— “all men are created equal”.
We are a country of individuals who represent something larger than our singular selves—the United States of America—this human community; however, yesterday we were again reminded that the laws of America are not the same for everyone. And as a human community accountable to each other we must speak up and out when we witness injustice.
These moments have highlighted the deeply systemic issues of race in this country—the real problem that keeps America from forming a “more perfect Union.”
Our community, the LGBTQ+ community, cannot sit silently by as these travesties of injustice and inequity continue to happen—in and to our communities. America is a country of mixed identities; therefore, we cannot see America’s unrest singularly as a demand for reform on American Democracy.
This is a cry for deep systemic change in America’s understanding of equality.
With pride,
Densil R. Porteous
Executive Director/CEO
STONEWALL COLUMBUS
