Are you trying to stop Pride? – Dallas Voice

LGBTQ people who have tried to prevent Pride events do not understand the history of Pride and the true value of visibility

Throughout LGBTQ Pride Month, it was clear to me that members of the LGBTQ community are ignorant of the history of what Stonewall or Pride stands for, and some members have even gone so far as to dishonor our history and all those who have fought for the privilege of coming out.

I was at Stonewall on the first night. I’m the guy who wrote “Tomorrow Night Stonewall” on the walls and streets and helped organize the second night. Yes, Stonewall was more than just that first night, and I’ve been fighting for equality every day for 55 years.

Over the years, I have been infuriated by the way my friends’ and I’s actions have been misrepresented and exploited for political ends. But this year it has been particularly egregious from those who would destroy a central part of our movement for equality. As one of no more than a handful of us from Stonewall and the Gay Liberation Front who remain, it is difficult to understand why Stonewall and Pride are being taken so far out of context.

Stonewall and Pride are closely linked and both represent the same idea: we will no longer be invisible and you will no longer have the pleasure of our silence. We will be loud and proud.

Today, thanks to our work, many people have the privilege of coming out. But in 1969, 99 percent of our community was not out. Almost everything we did – meeting, intimacy, even drinking – was illegal. Many of us, including myself, still have our bail receipts.

Thanks to decades of activist work, LGBTQ people can now freely gather, be open, work, and even rise to the top of a board or nonprofit. There are even LGBTQ nonprofits now that we literally had to invent.

We achieved all this with one word: visibility.

This is what some members of our community tried to erase this year.

This year, members of our community in many cities tried to stop Pride. They tried to block Pride parades, chanted

“No pride during a genocide.” Others posted asking what there was to be proud of.

All of those who have done that don’t understand the importance of Stonewall, our history, or our pride. They forget – or simply ignore – that they can now openly acknowledge their past because we made it known to the world, because the Stonewall riots happened, and because a community was created that didn’t exist before.

This visibility is more important now than ever, as over 450 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced across the country, aimed at making us invisible again.

Those who tried to stop Pride want to take us back to the 1950s. They want us to be silent again.

You can have strong feelings about the situation in Gaza, but not at the cost of erasing our visibility. Pride allows the LGBTQ community to exist publicly – with all the differing opinions of other groups.

Thanks to Pride, pro-Palestinian LGBTQ people can be as public as they want. And now they are trying to prevent the very thing that makes their existence possible in the first place.

I want to ask a question to everyone who tried to stop Pride parades this year: What if this year was the first Pride for an LGBTQ youth?

Someone who wanted to come out and not be harassed by members of our community telling him not to be proud, just like these 450 laws across the country.

What if you made them feel ashamed? What if you forced them to hide again because they felt guilty about celebrating themselves for the first time in their lives?

Are you proud of it? Is this what you want for our community?

If so, you are no better than those who wish we didn’t come out. You are no better than those who wish we didn’t exist.

Mark Segal is the founder and editor of Philadelphia Gay News, the author of And Then I Danced: Traveling the Road to LGBT Equality, a co-founder of the Gay Liberation Front, and an activist for over 50 years.