Is Pride still relevant?

by Rob Howard
Associate Editor

As we celebrate Pride in 2016, we look back to celebrate our accomplishments. But if look back is all that we do, we should add the question, “Is Pride still relevant.”

Before I came out, I was a union official at the airline where I worked. One of my favorite union organizing songs is “Solidarity Forever” sung by Utah Phillips. The end of the song goes like this:

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,

Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.

We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old

For the union makes us strong.

Solidarity forever,

Solidarity forever,

Solidarity forever,

For the union makes us strong.

Even after years as a manager, and years of retirement, I still look at things from a union perspective. So my mind moved over to the other thing in my life that is, after all, an organizing effort, and an ongoing battle. The battle for our LGBTQ rights.

Looking to the past, we have gained a lot of acceptance. Most notably, we have the right, across the entire country, to marry the person we love, regardless of both our genders.

Our issues are discussed everywhere. We have out politicians. The Secretary of the Army is gay. We have the President of the United States and the US Attorney General affirming our rights.

Companies moved rapidly to provide marital benefits, often even before Obergefell. Hundreds of major companies prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation (and in many very enlightened companies, even based on gender identity.)

But that’s all looking to the past. We have great accomplishments to celebrate during Pride, 2016. But we also need to look at the present, and the future.

Only 18 states have protections against discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodation. Two more states protect based on sexual orientation only.

But, perhaps mainly in reaction to how far and how fast we have come to where we are, we face major opposition from right-wing bigots. They want to be able to discriminate against us based on their ‘sincerely held religious beliefs.’ These same people wanted to be able to discriminate against African-Americans based on those same beliefs

And they are employing government-sanctioned discrimination against our trans brothers and sisters. We have governors like Sam Brownback in Kansas, Greg Abbott in Texas, and Pat McCrory in North Carolina who would crush our rights completely if they could.

So in some states, including those in The Gayly’s area, you can toss acceptance to the wind. So I’ll be damned if I’ll stop marching in the streets of Oklahoma City, or Washington DC, or anywhere else, until we get equal rights in every state, just like we have the right to marry in every state.

A big part of our annual festivals and parades shows our fellow citizens that we are just like them – we are their sons and daughters, their fathers and mothers, their aunts and uncles, cousins, co-workers, fellow churchgoers, and their neighbors.

Utah Phillips sings, “In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold.” No matter how much money the bigots spend, we will continue to advance, and to gain power, because it is right.

“Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.” There are several millions of us in the United States and we can make a difference if we keep fighting. Those in power already see how many we are. If they see that we aren’t going away they will inevitably fold.

“We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old.” We can tear down their laws, and change their attitudes by being out there every year for Pride, and be OUT every day in our lives, so they can’t ignore us – and we can build a new world of freedom and equality for LGBT people on the ashes of the old, tired morality.

We need to take a lesson from the battles our union brothers and sisters fought in the 30s, 40s and 50s, and are still fighting today. A united front fighting for our rights is critical.

We need to focus on what we want, which my friend Mark Henricksen sums up in 14 words: “Gay people want the same rights as everybody else, and they want them now.”

So YES, Pride is still relevant. Celebrate it at your local Pride events this year, and every other day of the year as well.

Solidarity forever.

The Gayly – June 7, 2016 @ 7:35 a.m.