Pride Is and Always Was About Rebellion, This Year More Than Ever

This year, Pride is different. It’s not a corporate parade or a party. It’s an uprising, and it’s up to white queer people to protect the Black community as they demand justice.
LGBT supporters wave a rainbow pride flag outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C.
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As the world continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, America is slowly reaching its boiling point. With over 100,000 dead from the virus, nearly 40 million unemployed, and a government response that lacks the urgency of the situation, the U.S. is quickly sliding into a humanitarian crisis. Unfortunately, for Black people, racism, anti-Blackness, and white supremacy take no days off, nor does the oppressive police system. With last week’s police killing of George Floyd, thousands across the country have taken to the streets to fight against injustice — a harrowing reminder this Pride month of a time in history when Black and brown trans and queer folks led a violent revolt against policing.

On the night of June 28, 1969, history was made at a bar in Greenwich Village, New York called the Stonewall Inn. It was on that night during a police raid that LGBTQ+ people led their first major action against the NYPD and their discriminatory practices towards queer people. During that raid, a biracial butch lesbian by the name of Stormé DeLarverie resisted arrest, screaming out to others there, “Why don’t you guys do something?” It was in that moment that the only response to violence could be violence — the only language the police and state have ever spoken. The surrounding crowd then began to rise up, and the Stonewall uprising was born.

Led by Black and Brown trans and queer folks, the rebellion that followed lasted six days. There were protests, looting, and violent exchanges with the police the likes of which had never been seen during that era. Though the historical record of Stonewall is often debated, many credit Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender woman, with throwing the first brick at Stonewall, and Stormé with throwing the first punch. What’s clear is that Black and brown LGBTQ+ folks played an integral role in the uprising.

Stonewall was a rebellion. Stonewall was an uprising. Many have referred to Stonewall as a riot — an idea that’s often rejected, as the word “riot” carries a negative connotation. No matter how we refer to it, Stonewall stands as the watershed moment in LGBTQ+ history and the catalyst for the LGBTQ+ rights movement. As queer people, riots and protest have often been among the most powerful tools we have to create change. Many of the same folks involved with Stonewall had to be just as active in protesting and activism during the HIV epidemic — an epidemic still harming Black LGBTQ+ people at much higher rates than other communities.

In 1970, on the one year anniversary of Stonewall, the first ever Pride parade took place in NYC. It was a defiant act in the face of what happened the year prior, one that had the potential to be unsafe and dangerous for all who participated. Fortunately, the parade went off without altercation, starting a new tradition for LGBTQ+ communities.

Pride parades have grown over the five decades since to become a globally celebrated event, drawing out millions of citizens in many cities to join the festivities. Unfortunately, Pride — much like many other movements — has become commodified by capitalism, whitewashing much of the movement, its history, and connection to Black resistance for civil rights. It has become more about giving corporations 30 days to support queer communities by slapping a rainbow on every product and donating to “good” LGBTQ+ causes, while centering their allyship over the needs of those they claim to support. Black and brown LGBTQ+ communities still continue to face gaps in healthcare, education, and socio-economic stability in the face of the “rainbow.”

In a piece called “Symbolism Is Not Enough” by Da’Shaun Harrison, an Atlanta-based nonbinary abolitionist and organizer, they highlight “rainbow capitalism” with specificity:

“Rainbow Capitalism,” also referred to as pink capitalism, is a term used to detail the allusion to incorporation of LGBTQIA+ rights into corporations with profit incentives […] Solidarity from these corporations has extended to gay marriage, but not abolition of the police [...] corporations like Nike, Walmart, and Jack Daniels announce countless rainbow-colored products every year while investing in private prisons, slave labor, and ignoring the higher rate at which LGBTQIA+ people suffer from substance abuse.

Pride is not a party. That’s not meant to say that we shouldn’t celebrate our communities and the progress we’ve made, but to remember the reasons this month is necessary. It is a reminder of where we started, the need for that history to be documented and protected, as well as the fight to continue the movement towards equity and equality.

Black LGBTQ+ folks have always been on the front lines; we have been organizers and involved in every facet of the movement for Black rights, as well as the rights of those with intersecting identities. We were there every night of Stonewall, every night of the Civil Rights movement, and there now in midst of a national movement against the police state. As we remain the highest at risk of COVID-19, many of us have set that fear aside, outweighed by the need to once again fight against police brutality in a country built on anti-Blackness.

Paul Morigi/Getty Images

The recent protests of George Floyd’s killing at the hands of 4 Minnesota police officers was a breaking point following weeks of Black death. The killing of Ahmaud Arbery by two white supremacists, with one being a former police officer. The killing of EMS worker Breonna Taylor by the police, who kicked in her door and killed her in her own home. The killing of a trans man by the name of Tony McDade, who lost his life at the hands of police just last week. Protests and riots have taken place in more than 30 major cities across the country as well as major cities globally, as the plight of Blacks in America is once again put on trial for the world to see.

Pride Month this year is different. It is now up to white people, specifically white queer people who watch Black folks sitting at the intersections die at the hands of layered oppression, to stand up. It is on those who love drinking at the Stonewall Inn and every gay bar across the nation to put their bodies on the line in solidarity, and “spend their privilege” in order to protect others with shared forms of marginalization.

As celebrities, the government, liberals, and conservatives continue to condemn the protesters currently fighting against police brutality and the systems that breed it, we must lean into history and how it guides us. Looting is not the issue. You can’t destroy “your own city” in a place you never felt like you belong. Property can be replaced. George, Tony, Breonna, and Ahmaud cannot. As people who were once deemed property, I’ll be damned if anyone tells us that we are less than that ever again. 


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