By Siobhán McGuirk for Rewire – No Justice No Pride members have elevated an urgent, national conversation. And we’re not sorry. This month, the social justice group No Justice No Pride (NJNP) disrupted the Capital Pride parade in Washington, D.C. The protest attracted a lot of coverage, including some high-profile endorsementsof the collaborative’s demands, which focus on ending Pride’s general complicity with corporate and state institutions that criminalize, harm, and exploit queer and trans people. Just as the D.C. group, of which I am a member, was inspired by recent actions in Phoenix and Toronto, groups across the country have picked up the NJNP baton and are now protesting at the local level. The D.C. action has prompted some commentators to promote false claims about the history and present realities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual, and two-spirit (LGBTQIA2S) communities. This article corrects those myths. MYTH #1: Pride is a celebration, not a protest. Our community has no battles left to fight. FACT: Pride marches commemorate a rebellious insurgency against police brutality and exploitation at the hands of bar owners who colluded with the police. The 1969 Stonewall uprising in New York City was led by trans women of color, and it sparked a movement.
By Victoria Law for Truthout – During her 30 years in California’s prison system, Cookie Bivens has seen numerous trans women attempt to change their name and gender marker while incarcerated. Not a single woman ever succeeded. In California, people seeking to legally change their name or gender marker must file an application with the county court and pay a filing fee of nearly $500. (A person earning less than $2,127 per month can file for a fee waiver.) Once the paperwork is filed, the court sets a hearing date within six to 12 weeks. If the court receives no objections to the proposed name and gender marker change, the petition is granted. Incarcerated trans people face an extra hurdle: obtaining approval from the prison’s superintendent and other administrators. Without that approval, they cannot begin the court process.
By Keegan O’Brien for Socialist Worker – GAY MARRIAGE leads to “the deterioration of marriage and the family” and “societal collapse.” Keeping same-sex couples from marrying isn’t discrimination, but simply enforcing “God’s idea.” These are just a few of the ugly statements by Vice President and religious bigot Mike Pence about marriage equality. And it doesn’t stop there. In 2015, Trump’s second-hand man signed a “religious freedom” law as governor of Indiana that gave permission to businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people. During his short time in office, Trump has already come close to implementing a similar executive order, but he was forced to back down after a series of humiliating defeats on other issues and pressure from LGBTQ organizations. With Trump and Pence controlling the White House and a Republican majority in Congress, it’s understandable that millions of LGBTQ people, their family, friends and supporters are fearful that rights won in recent years will be rolled back.
By Olga R. Rodriguez, Rebecca Gibian and Colleen Long and Martha Irvine for Associated Press – SAN FRANCISCO — Tens of thousands of people waving rainbow flags lined streets for gay pride parades Sunday in coast-to-coast events that took both celebratory and political tones, the latter a reaction to what some see as new threats to gay rights in the Trump era. In San Francisco, revelers wearing rainbow tutus and boas held signs that read “No Ban, No Wall, Welcome Sisters and Brothers” while they danced to electronic music at a rally outside City Hall. Frank Reyes said he and his husband decided to march for the first time in many years because they felt a need to stand up for their rights. The couple joined the “resistance contingent,” which led the parade and included representatives from several activist organizations. “We have to be as visible as possible,” said Reyes, wearing a silver body suit and gray and purple headpiece decorated with rhinestones. “Things are changing quickly and we have to take a stand and be noticed,” Reyes’ husband, Paul Brady, added. “We want to let everybody know that we love each other, that we pay taxes and that we’re Americans, too.”
By John Zangas for DC Media Group. Drawing spirit from the LGBTQ resistance roots of the Stonewall protests of the late 1960s, an ad-hoc group of activists under the banner of No Justice No Pride, staged a series of spectacular blockades of the 42nd D.C. Capital Pride parade Saturday afternoon. There were three separate blockades representing major concerns of the three groups that they say have resulted in marginalization by Capital Pride organizers and sponsors. Black Lives Matter LGBTQ persons protested the police sponsorship of Pride and LGBTQ war resistors protested the corporate military sponsors of Pride, while indigenous and immigrant LGBTQ persons protested bank sponsors for their oppressive prison, pipeline and anti-immigration funding.
By Graham Gremore for Queerty – The Trump Administration’s attempt to completely erase the LGBTQ community rages on. First, the White House deleted the LGBT rights page from its official website. Then it axed the White House Office of AIDS Policy. Then it announced massive cuts to the HIV/AIDS research budget. Now, it wants to eliminate LGBTQ citizens from the 2020 census. Every 10 years, the federal government conducts the U.S. Census to determine the number of people living in the country. They also record things like race and gender, employment and marital status, household income and education levels, and other information to help paint as accurate a picture as possible to then determine what resources it needs to spend where.
By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. On Thursday afternoon the protests grew filling the streets of downtown Philadelphia when Trump arrived at noon. People were protesting a host of extreme right wing issues that Trump and the GOP are pursuing including immigration, healthcare, women’s rights, the drug war and civil liberties, urged tolerance and love as an antidote to hate. Thousands of people filled city blocks around the Loews Hotel. People also protested his executive orders that seek to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone Pipeline as well as Trump’s threats to the environment.
By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. A total of 26 protesters were arrested today in opposition to Jeff Sessions, including members of Refuse Fascism, the NAACP, Democracy Spring, Code Pink, and Howard University, according to Refuse Fascism. The group is calling for millions to pour into the streets of DC to prevent Trump and Pence from assuming power. The protests began even before confirmation hearings officially began. Two CODE PINK members dressed in KKK costumes stood up before the hearing was gaveled to express their support for Sessions. They praised “Jefferson Beauregard” and as they were taken from the room they yelled mockingly “you can’t arrest me, I am white!” and “white people own this government.” In the hall as they were being detained they explained that Sessions history on racism, immigration, LGBTQ rights and sexism made him inappropriate to serve as attorney general.
By Rupert Neate for The Guardian – Dozens of gay activists began a campaign of civil disobedience against gun companies and their investors on Monday by holding a “die-in” at the headquarters of BlackRock, one of the largest corporate shareholders of gun companies’ stock. Holding placards bearing photos of some of the victims of gun violence, protesters occupied the lobby of BlackRock’s headquarters in midtown Manhattan for almost an hour on Monday afternoon demanding that the investment firm divest from gun stocks.
By Julia Craven for The Huffington Post – When the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter discovered they were the honored guests at the city’s 2016 pride parade, the group wasn’t very enthused. And on Sunday, activists from the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter brought the city’s parade to a halt for about 30 minutes to urge for the inclusion of more black LGBT members in the festivities. “We understood that Toronto Pride has had a history of anti-black racism,” Janaya Khan, a co-founder Black Lives Matter Toronto, told The Huffington Post.
By Staff of Black Lives Matter – Homegrown terror is the product of a long history of colonialism, including state and vigilante violence. It is the product of white supremacy and capitalism, which deforms the spirit and fuels interpersonal violence. We especially hold space for our Latinx family now, knowing that the vast majority of those murdered were Latinx, and many were specifically Puerto Rican. From the forced migration of thousands of young people from the island of Puerto Rico to Orlando, to the deadly forced migration throughout Latin America and the Caribbean…
By Rebecca Green for Code Pink – This Monday, June 20, CODEPINK and a diverse coalition are organizing an overnight peace vigil in front of the NRA to honor the 49 people killed and 53 injured in the tragic mass shooting this past weekend in Orlando and call for a ban on assault weapons. We will have 49 hearts to honor those slain in the horrific act, and will have individuals volunteer to represent these lives that were ended too soon. We will be joined by representatives of Muslim groups, LGBTQ groups, anti-gun violence organizations, mothers who have lost children to gun violence, peace groups, and individuals who have been directly affected by the epidemic of gun violence
By Erik Lampmann for The Next System Project – For centuries, the erasure of LGBTQ people from public policy has been the norm. Trapped within the confines of our closets by regimes of sexual and gender conformity enforced by brutal violence, sterilization, and incarceration, LGBTQ people have long been denied formal political agency, legal recognition, and the ability to live as our full, authentic selves. It can be tempting to forget that, even in 2016, a presupposition of heterosexuality remains an integral component of this country’s cultural firmament.
By John Zangas and Anne Meador for DC Media Group – Washington, DC — Victims of the June 12 shooting at an Orlando, Fl., gay nightclub were remembered in two vigils in Washington, DC. Now pronounced the country’s deadliest mass shooting ever, the massacre was carried out by a lone gunman armed with a semi-automatic weapon who killed 49 people and injured 53 more at the Pulse nightclub. Hundreds of people in the Washington LGBTQ community and their supporters joined two separate gatherings at the White House and DuPont Circle to express feelings of grief, fear and anger.
By Grace Dolan-Sandrino for Other Worlds – From Orlando to Washington, a culture of fear and bigotry is taking hold of this country. We can stop it together. The weekend of June 12 sent me on a rollercoaster of emotions I never thought possible. The previous Friday, I was an invited participant in the first-ever White House Summit for African American LGBTQ Youth. I felt amazingly supported, empowered, and valued — by my school, by my family and friends, by President Obama, and by my LGBTQ community.
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