Photo credit: Benson Kua
My LGBTQ POV is proudly sponsored by Dr. Stephanie Murphy, DDS. Dr. Murphy's practice philosophy is to treat her patients the way she would want members of her family to be treated. She looks forward to taking care of you and your smile. Read past columns here.
If anything, Pride 2020 may be remembered as a salient moment in LGBTQ history. Because Pride is taking place in the midst of worldwide social upheaval, the “enough is enough” spirit of Stonewall is being revived in the hearts and minds of LGBTQ people. This time, however, it is directed against endemic and systemic racism in solidarity with people of color and their struggle for equal rights.
Having achieved a modicum of equality over the past half century, we’ve fallen into a state of complacency. Of course, we were somewhat engaged in the continuing battle for transgender rights or those of LGBTQ families. But, unless we were directly affected by those issues, the struggle was largely over. After all, with marriage equality achieved and military service accessible, it seemed like it would merely be a matter of time before those other inconveniences of inequality like health care, education and other disparities (usually for people in social demographics other than our own) would eventually follow suit. The presidential election of 2016 changed all that. Still, in band-played-on manner, we carried on, choosing to ignore the insidious shifts in the Republican engineered policies against us.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Some of us hoped the national crisis would serve as a cause to unite us in the name of mutual survival. But no, it turned out to be just another means to divide us. We added the masked and the unmasked to the ranks of our warring tribes.
Impossible to Look Away
A week before Pride, on May 25, we watched the video of George Floyd’s execution. It was impossible to look away from the soulless eyes of his killer. The Black Lives Matter protests followed. Again, the national state of shock should have offered a moment of unity, a soul-searching what-have-we-become? moment. Instead, aping the regime’s “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” tweet, the Republican Senator from Arkansas, Tom Cotton called for “no quarter” in dealing with protestors. You remember the famous scene from the film Lawrence of Arabia in which Lawrence (Peter O’Toole) gives the order of “no quarter” when his army is about to attack retreating Turkish soldiers. The order means “take no prisoners” or, more specifically, “kill them all.” Carnage ensues. And this, just days before the anniversary of the 1989 Beijing Tiananmen Square massacre when thousands of protestors perished at the hands of the Chinese People’s Army. It seemed our regime wanted boasting rights for the best massacre, a beautiful massacre of its own.
So, when the regime forbade the flying of the Rainbow Flag at embassies and refused to recognize Pride Month, the message was clear: as LGBTQs in 2020 we still share a common cause with the oppressed. Governor Tony Evers then raised the Rainbow Flag at the Wisconsin State House, and Milwaukee’s March with Pride for #BLACKLIVESMATTER followed. Both acts symbolized a return to our political roots, to our true Pride.
Since then, the regime rolled back transgender heath care accessibility and is fighting for the right of adoption agencies to reject LGBTQ couples. The GOP is reviving its 2016 platform which demands the end to marriage equality and endorses conversion therapy for youth.
This Pride Month is also the fourth anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub murders in Orlando, FL. I said it before, but it bears repeating, especially since that horrible event was appropriated as a campaign prop for the then candidate and current occupant of the White House. At the time, he promised the LGBTQ community his protection from “the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology.” He did not, however, promise us protection from a domestic one, namely his own.
Happy Pride ... keep marching! Keep voting!
My LGBTQ POV is proudly sponsored by Dr. Stephanie Murphy, DDS. Read past columns here.
