As Pride Month comes to a close, I am grateful for having been in conversation with young people, parents, colleagues, system leaders, family, and friends who are working every day to support joy and healing for LGBTQIA+ children, youth, and their families.
This Pride, as CSSP works toward a racially, socially, and economically just society where all of us can thrive, these conversations remind us of the lessons we have learned from those who have fought for justice before us.
Queer heroes like Marsha P. Johnson, Bayard Rustin, Audre Lorde, Pauli Murray, and so many others have taught us that the bedrock of a just society is solidarity, an unshakeable understanding that none of us, no single individual or group, can be free amidst another’s oppression and thus we must actively seek each other’s liberation.
Our history teaches us that there can be no liberation, no justice, without Pride.
At its heart, Pride is an act of LGBTQI+ resistance to oppression and an uncompromising assertion of the joy of the diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, and gender expressions we hold. When we celebrate Pride, we honor the resilient LGBTQI+ activists and community members who have long fought for a better world.
That is why CSSP continues our unreserved celebration of Pride, our love and affirmation of the diverse LGBTQI+ children, youth, and adults in our community, and our unwavering commitment to stand up as a comrade in the struggle for justice.
We know that our vision of a just society is threatened by anti-LGBTQI+ bigotry.
Extremists who believe that cisgender and heterosexual members of society are superior regularly seek to exclude and dehumanize LGBTQI+ people, especially those who are transgender or gender non-conforming.
Through the advancement of hundreds of anti-LGBTQI+ bills in state legislatures, a relentless drumbeat of hostile rhetoric and policies from Congress and the White House, and disappointing Supreme Court decisions, including the recent decision to uphold discriminatory state bans on transgender girls’ and women’s participation in school sports, we have seen how shamelessly the levers of government have been weaponized to advance anti-LGBTQI+ bigotry.
These attacks are motivated by the same ideology of supremacism that undergirds all forms of oppression and against which Pride activists struggled decades ago.
While these attacks may dishearten us, we must never let them divide us nor tempt us into complacency.
While some voices suggest that we should be quiet in our pursuit of justice or base our principles on what seems politically expedient, CSSP knows we must stand firm. Pride calls on us to be loud when our community is threatened and to push back against attacks.
It compels us to fight against efforts to ban essential gender-affirming healthcare for young people and the harassment of care providers, actions that harm our transgender and gender non-confirming children and youth and threaten health justice for us all.
It compels us to work across the country, with dedicated partners who serve LGBTQI+ children and families, providing the resources they need to stay together, which keeps all of our families safe.
It compels us to continue to root our work in the best and most rigorous research alongside the voices of youth and families, which ensures we don’t lose sight of the commitments our work demands.
CSSP will always fight for a society that loves and affirms all of us.
While we believe that the moral arc of the universe will indeed bend toward justice, we know the arc does not bend on its own. We all must put our hands to it and play our roles. If we truly wish to live in a just society for all children and families, we cannot afford to sit on the sidelines.
Though we celebrate Pride in June, we know this work never stops. Fighting for justice is a struggle, and it is hard. But as we look back to the example of those who came before us, including the activists who taught us Pride, we must always remember that it is active solidarity and joyful resistance that will move us forward.
