For my wife Suzanne and I, Pride Month is one of the best times of the year. Just like for birthdays, we go big for Pride. For the last few years Pride has felt more like a celebration of the progress we’ve made, but this year Pride feels like it is being forced to return to its roots of protest and resistance to oppression, because LGBTQ communities are under attack.
Suzanne and I when we were finally able to get legally married
Under President Trump, our very existence has been erased from the White House. This year for the first time since 2011, Pride Month was not recognized by a federal proclamation. Rather than celebrate Pride Month by hosting a reception for LGBTQ leaders as President Obama did, Trump chose to speak at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” conference, where he said he would “promote and protect family values” and “ protect religious liberty in America.” He told evangelical attendees that they are “under siege.” But in reality it is LGBTQ communities that are under attack by an administration who does not recognize our humanity and promotes anti-LGBTQ sentiment.
In just six short months, Trump has rolled back protections for transgender students in public schools, signed an executive order on religious liberty that LGBTQ leaders believe will open the door to anti-LGBTQ employment discrimination, and appointed a Supreme Court justice who wrote his doctoral dissertation on legal reasons to oppose marriage equality.
Though some folks cling to hope that Trump’s opposition to LGBTQ rights is insincere and that he’ll evolve over time, to me, his actions are unacceptable and do long-term damage. On the day after the election, Suzanne and I were reeling. Suzanne asked me, “Do you think we’ll be forced to register with the government and be required to go through gay-to-straight conversion therapy?” This is what some threatened to do to gay men during the early years of the AIDS crisis. Our Vice President, Mike Pence, publicly supported “conversion therapy” - a horrifying practice meant to force LGBTQ people to change their sexual orientation with tactics ranging from emotional abuse to electroshock therapy - as recently as 2000. Horrified, I reassured Suzanne that such a thing could never happen in 2017. But in reality, I was afraid because I wasn’t so sure.
What she described really isn’t so far off from how Native folks are treated by the U.S. government today; we are required to register with the government in order to prove we have sufficient “blood quantum” to be considered Native. This formal recognition is critical because it is how the federal government determines whether we are eligible to receive the benefits afforded to Native peoples, benefits that were gained with the blood, sweat and tears of our ancestors and secured through our legal treaty rights. The reality is that registration due to identity is not a new concept to us. It has been an integral part of our personal experiences as Native women since we were young children. In short, the idea of being forced to register under a homophobic and non-tolerant administration doesn't seem quite so far fetched as I wish it did.
This isn’t an easy time for people with marginalized identities. Just over a year ago our nation was mourning the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, where Latinx folks were targeted and murdered for their LGBTQ identities. The families and friends of the victims, as well as the survivors, are mourning still.
Our sense of safety as LGBTQ folks in this country is evaporating minute by minute. That’s why it’s more important than ever that, in every one of the communities we’re part of, Sierra Club create safe spaces for people with marginalized identies. This year Sierra Club chapters and groups marched in Pride parades across the nation, showing the pride our LGBTQ members, volunteers and staff have in their identities, and the support we have from our allies within the Sierra Club community.
Pride celebration in St. Petersburg Florida
This month I’m proud, I’m defiant in the face of hate, and I’m lifted up by the knowledge that our Sierra Club community is on a journey to promoting equity and advancing justice in ways that will help us to better support and celebrate the contributions of LGBTQ folks in our community. Federal elected leaders can try to drag us back into the past with their ignorance, but we have the support of communities across the country and allies in our Sierra Club community to stand with us as we fight to preserve our rights, and to celebrate our progress.