Embracing the authentic meaning of “the spirit of Stonewall,” last year in New York City, the Reclaim Pride Coalition organized a huge, militant, multinational, multigender, multigenerational, youth-led march reclaiming the rebellious essence of the 1969 uprising outside the Stonewall Inn in the city’s Greenwich Village.
Demonstrating the high level of political consciousness that exists within the LGBTQ2S communities and their organizations, the Reclaim Pride marchers’ demands reflected not only issues of immediate concern to the communities themselves — in particular, the ongoing violence against trans people, especially trans women of color — but also the militaristic imperialist policies of the U.S., like the ongoing attempts to overthrow the democratically elected socialist government of Venezuela.
And now, a year later, that same high level of consciousness is visible in the magnificent mass mobilizations of anti-racist youth and their allies in every nook and cranny of this big country and, in dramatic shows of international solidarity, all across the globe.
LGBTQ2S activists are hard at work in organizing many of these anti-racist, anti-police actions. Adjustments made necessary by the coronavirus pandemic have made Pride organizing more challenging, but the movement is not deterred. In San Diego, for example, which has a huge Pride march each July, the march itself has been cancelled in the interests of protecting the community from contagion. But, in a significant act of solidarity with the Black-led uprising against police violence, the local Pride organizers have announced a ban on the participation by “law enforcement agencies” in all Pride activities.
Solidarity! As it should be right now, the focus of decent revolutionary people all around the world is on stopping the racist killer police of the U.S. from murdering people of color. But that struggle also raises basic issues of racial and class injustice: the need for free education through college for all; free quality health care, the lack of which has been exposed by the high level of deaths from COVID-19 among Black and Brown people; decent, affordable housing; and the right to good paying jobs for all. Deserving the special attention of all who seek a just world are the call for reparations for slavery and recognition of the settler-colonial status of the United States entity on Indigenous land.
The LGBTQ2S liberation movement and the Black liberation movement are natural allies. They were both born out of the same fury. They both began as a rebellion against continuous police brutality on an oppressed community.
In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court has just ruled that LGBTQ2S folk are covered under Civil Rights protections against being fired. This is a great victory and it’s no accident that two right-wing justices broke with Trump on this issue right now. It’s because of the Black-led rebellion. The struggle of the most oppressed elevates the struggles of the whole working class!
The Socialist Unity Party/Partido de Socialismo Unido salutes the growing unity between the LGBTQ2S communities and the Black Lives Matter movement. The goal of abolishing the economic, political and social injustices that plague the capitalist world can only be overcome by continuing to build these inspiring bridges of solidarity and struggle.
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