By Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis–
Stanley, Rodolfo, Antonio, Darryl, Angel, Luis, Cory, Tevin, Deonka, Simon, Leroy, Mercedez, Peter, Juan, Paul, Frank, Miguel, Javier, Jason, Eddie, Anthony, Christopher, Alejandro, Brenda, Gilberto, Juan, Akyra, Luis, Geraldo, Eric, Joel, Jean Carlos, Enrique, Jean, Xavier, Christopher, Yilmary, Edward, Shane, Martin, Jonathan, Juan, Luis, Franky, Jerry.
These are the names of the 49, mostly Latinx, members of the LGBTIQ community who were senselessly murdered in the early morning hours of June 12, 2016, at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. When we visited the Pulse memorial 18 months ago, we saw beautiful photos of all these cherished members of our community. They were out on a Saturday night at Pulse, a place they thought was safe to relax, dance, and simply be themselves, when a lone shooter armed with a SIG Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock 17 semi-automatic pistol opened fire, killing them and wounding 53 others. This week marks the fifth anniversary of the massacre. It remains the deadliest hate crime perpetrated by a single individual in American history.
Jennifer, Serena, Dustin, Brenda, Giselle, Tamara, Michelle, Fabiola, Hilary, Leticia, Shakira, Felycya, Isabelle, Samantha, Sabrina, Nicole, Mateus, Francesca, Monique, Maria, Alexa, Ali, Vanessa, Isadora, Stephanie, Valeria, Anushka, Paloma, Kelly, Daniela, Naomi, Lexi, Dominique, Mira, Sasha, Natasha, Juliana, Katherine, Melody, Manuela, Rhyanna, Leona, Tiffany, Marilyn, Eduarda, Márcia, Brandy, Mateus, Pablo, Britany.
These are the names of just a few of the hundreds of transgender people, mostly people of color, who were murdered last year alone. They came from places as far and wide as Arkansas, Brazil, France, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Ohio, Puerto Rico, and New York City. They lost their lives because they had the bravery to live true to themselves.
We could add another name to the list of LGBTIQ people who died at the hands of hatred and gun violence: Harvey.
We remember Harvey Milk’s famous words he recorded in 1978 on a tape to be played in the event of his assassination: “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door in the country.”
Pride Month is a celebration of destroying closet doors, whether we smash them down in one fell swoop or close them quietly behind us as we liberate ourselves. For us, it’s about being loud, strong, and joyful, from the relative security of San Francisco and other places where we can speak out and be ourselves. For those of us who live in homes or communities where doing so publicly is unsafe, Pride may manifest through a powerful inner strength and sense of well-being that refuses to lock the beauty of our sexuality and gender expression in an internal closet. We resist becoming figuratively our own internal assassin, forsaking our inner happiness, and surrendering hope.
A sundrenched and faded trans rainbow flag at the Pulse Memorial reads: “Bullets Cannot Break Our Pride. More Love, Less Hate.”
Since the 2015 nationwide marriage equality victory, Republican and other anti-LGBTIQ political forces have carried out a cynical and unprecedented attack on the rights and freedoms of transgender people for their own political gain. They have turned to exploiting Americans’ relative lack of familiarity with and understanding of trans and gender nonbinary people because their previous attacks on LGB people no longer resonate with most of the country. This orchestrated vilification and stigmatization of trans people is having deadly effects as evidenced by record numbers of murders of trans people, especially trans women of color. And the grim data show that transphobia is a worldwide epidemic.
This new attention makes trans people particularly vulnerable right now, and together we must advocate strongly for transgender rights and support trans people. But as we have seen with marriage equality and the broader LGBTIQ movement, breaking down closet doors over time produces more love, dignity, and respect—and civil rights.
Even though this year, like last, the COVID-19 pandemic prevents us from showing up millions strong on Market Street as usual, Pride remains a time for us to delight together in the beauty and joy of being LGBTIQ and to dedicate ourselves to doing everything we can to stop hate violence from taking any more lives of our community. Happy Pride Month—let’s keep changing the world!
Stuart Gaffney and John Lewis, together for over three decades, were plaintiffs in the California case for equal marriage rights decided by the California Supreme Court in 2008. Their leadership in the grassroots organization Marriage Equality USA contributed in 2015 to making same-sex marriage legal nationwide.
Published on June 10, 2021
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