Pride This Month, and Every Month
As a young Chicana coming of age in a country that treated many of my identities, including my queerness, as invisible or something to fear, I learned early that pride wasn’t a given. It was something we had to fight for, every day, just to exist. And we still do.
Today, that fight continues. Across the country, LGBTQ+ people — especially Trans and gender-nonconforming folks — are being targeted by legislation and rhetoric designed to erase, control, and intimidate. These attacks are deliberate. They are strategies by those in power to chip away at our collective rights, starting with the communities they think no one will defend.
Let me be clear: we see what they’re doing. And we won’t back down.
Queer and Trans people of color have always been on the frontlines of justice movements in this country — not by choice, but by necessity. If you’re born queer, you’re born an activist. Because surviving and thriving in a world not built for you is activism. And when we join together across race, gender, class, and identity, we are a force no system of oppression can contain.
Pride isn’t just a celebration. It’s a riot that turns into an organizing moment. It’s a reminder that joy, visibility, and resistance can coexist, and that our liberation is bound up with the liberation of all people pushed to the margins.
This month, and every month, I honor the courage of our communities and the legacy of those who paved the way. We’re still here. And we’re not going anywhere.
In pride and in power.
