Over 1,000 anti-LGBTQ+ attacks occurred in 2025: report

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/news/anti-lgbtq-hate-crimes-2025

Indiana town sued for blocking LGBTQ+ Pride festival (again)

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/loogootee-indiana-lgbtq-pride-lawsuit

Texas city cancels 2026 Pride after local council rescinds LGBTQ+ protections

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.advocate.com/politics/arlington-pride-canceled-city-council

RECLAIMING AND REFRAMING PRIDE

June marks Pride Month, when queer folx celebrate our continued existence. Across the world, street parades and festivals occur, people come out both figuratively and literally, and we have a gay old time—pun absolutely intended.   

But before those of us with the privilege and ability to attend our expensive and all too often inaccessible pride events, I would like us all to take a minute to reflect on how we got here, and where we are headed. 

The saying “pride began as a protest” has become a bit trite, but it is true. However, years of complacency have allowed our marginalized community members to be left behind. Now that it is threatening to affect white, moneyed queers, the klaxons have begun sounding.   

I fear it may be too late—as always, the most marginalized will suffer the most.   

We may be taken back to a time when it was completely illegal to be queer, gay sex was outlawed, wearing clothes that did not conform to your assumed gender at birth would subject you to humiliating searches and treatment by the police, and raids on our gathering places were a regular occurrence.   

In the light of those conditions arose a powder keg, one that would explode with the events of Stonewall. We had begun organizing across intersectional lines before then, but within a year, the first pride marches happened on June 28th, the anniversary of Stonewall, across America and within two years it spread internationally. Among the strongest leaders of the queer rights movement, which was then known as the homophile and the gay liberation movement, were and are trans people of colour, and they have always faced the most repression and oppression.  

The movement was not perfect and continues to be imperfect, as any movement created within a white supremacist, patriarchal society will contain some of those ills, and the queer rights movement has certainly been no exception. We cannot ignore this reality; we can only fight to change it now.   

We must learn from our past, what worked and what didn’t work, because our past informs us of our current moment. As I sit here in 2025, writing this article thinking back upon our history, it is clear and evident that, while things have changed drastically, they also have stayed much the same, and it even appears a growing movement is attempting to take us back to a time wherein we are again subjugated and dehumanized to the utmost extent.   

Across Canada, this currently looks like school board level decisions on representation, the 1 Million March 4 Children, book bans and whole provinces wherein accessing gender affirming care becomes nearly impossible.

The same is happening across the world, a movement to take us back. We cannot go back, we will not go back, and the way we continue moving forward is to fight.

So, as we head to our parks and town squares for pride, remember that our ability to have these events is paved upon the blood, sweat and tears of our elders, and the responsibility to continue having these events lies on our shoulders.

For those who have been harmed, for those who have been killed, and for those who never got to live their truth either because of their circumstances or because the larger queer community, where the definition of “the community” and entry into spaces are routinely gatekept by those of us with the most privilege, refused to open itself to them and allow them in, for all these siblings and more we must continue the fight.

We must learn from our present and past and strengthen our bonds across intersectional lines because, at the end of the day, we either stand together or we die together. 

#2SLGBTQIA_ #America #bookBans #Canada #gatekept #gaySex #homophile #june #oneMillionMarch #prideEvents #prideMonth #queer #queerFolx #stonewall

Pride Month started this week, which means there are plenty of upcoming events and celebrations for the Houston area's LGBTQ+ community and its allies.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/lgbtq/2025/06/06/523367/houston-pride-month-events-2025/

#ArtsCulture #Events #Houston #LGBTQ #Local #News #2025HoustonPride #HoustonPride #HoustonPrideParade #PrideEvents #PrideHouston365 #PrideMonth

Get ready to join us for an unforgettable experience at our upcoming Accessible Virtual Pride on August 31st & September 1st, 2024! We're thrilled to invite you to a celebration of diversity, inclusivity, and love, uniting the LGBTQAI2S+ community and our allies in a safe and COVID-conscious environment.

#acccessiblepride #queer #enby #trans #covidcautious #virtual #virtualpride #2SlLGBTQIAA+ #pride2024 #PRIDE #disabled #disability #prideevents #polyam