It’s June. Pride month. In the tradition of what goes around comes around, the whole thing as we all know by now, started with the Stonewall riots back in 1969. Tired of the constant police raids, patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back. I was a kid then and years away from realizing my own queerness. Go Google it if you must.

Back in 1969, you could be fired from your job for being gay or lesbian (it was kind of binary back then). You could be arrested for not wearing enough clothing considered acceptable to your gender (again, very binary), aka the “three article” rule. Earlier, Nazis forced homosexual prisoners to wear pink triangles. In the U.S., homosexuality was considered a mental illness from the 1950s to 1974. You get the drift.

My point is, it started with protests, people who’d been oppressed for decades, centuries, finally had enough and said, you know what, we’re people too and we deserve to be treated with respect. Gradually, the annual marches turned into celebratory parades as more and more long-denied rights were corrected. We came out of the closet, got married, adopted kids, served openly in the military.

Now all of that is at risk of being taken away. The target is transgender people, but the goal is anyone who isn’t a cis, white, heterosexual man or woman—back to binary. There are some calling for the execution of all LGBTQ+ people and the parents of transgender children. White Christian nationalists say they want to go back to some perceived perfection of race and gender roles. Around the country, hundreds of laws have been filed to restrict the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

Am I safe here in liberal Massachusetts, with our lesbian governor? Not according to the Anti-Defamation League: “Over the last year, extremists targeted LGBTQ+ events, particularly drag shows, throughout the state. Throughout 2022, Boston Children’s Hospital endured multiple waves of threats and harassment stemming from the hateful and false narratives surrounding gender-affirming care.”

As comedian Wanda Sykes says, “Until a drag queen walks into a school and beats eight kids to death with a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, I think you’re focusing on the wrong shit.”

I marched in Pride parades when they were celebrations. Now they are back to being protests against the existential threat posed to me and my people, everyone in the “quiltbag” that is the LGBTQ+ community. I testified before my state’s legislature 20 years ago when they wanted to take away our newly gained right to marry. They lost, we kept our right. For now.

I don’t know what the future will bring (which is why I write my own version). I’m an optimistic pessimist. I think the glass is half full but probably filled with poison, which, given the more we learn about our water supplies (PFAS anyone?) and plastic drinking bottles (cancer-causing PET anyone?), is probably truth.

I’m not trans, but I 100 percent support the trans community’s right to be responsible for their own health and welfare.

I’ve never had an abortion, but I 100 percent support a woman’s right to be responsible for her own health and welfare. Or anyone with a uterus for that matter.

I’m not Jewish, but I 100 percent support the Jewish community’s right to exist!

I’m not Black, but I 100 percent believe Black Lives Matter.

I am white and I 100 percent condemn white supremacy.

I am an American and I 100 percent condemn the January 6, 2021 insurrection.

I’m not in school anymore, but I 100 percent support children’s right to live! (And if you think that goes against my stand on abortion, you don’t understand the difference between responsibility and oppression, and if you oppose a woman’s right to choose but reject helping children to live and thrive, you are a hypocrite.)

I 100 percent support librarians’ right to decide what books to carry in schools and public libraries.

I 100 percent support the EPA’s role to protect the environment, and I 100 percent condemn the Supreme Court’s lack of understanding of basic science.

I could go on.

So, yes, do have a happy Pride month. Don’t let the bastards get us down.

Our voices need to be heard, so starting next week, I’ll be posting one of my short stories each week in June for free (but for just a week, so I hope you’ll support queer writers by purchasing our books). I could go on about all the ways stories matter, how our brains are wired for story, how story is fundamental to who we are, and maybe someday I will. But for now, it’s almost summer, there are birds to watch, flowers to smell, trails to clear…

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For more:

ADL report, Hate in the Bay State: Extremism & Antisemitism in Massachusetts, 2021-2022

For everything else, Google is your friend. Except when it’s AI and its intent is to take over the world and destroy us all. 🙂