Marking Pride month has changed over the years. It did not begin with social tolerance or corporate sponsorship. It began with resistance led by those most often erased from the story. Alongside the wider community, there was stand-out resistance from trans women of colour, queer sex workers, and street youth- those who had already been pushed to the margins of society and had nothing left to lose. The Stonewall Uprising was not a single night or a spontaneous outburst. It was a culmination of years of harassment, surveillance, criminalization, and refusal.

The popular narrative often sanitizes this history. It trades in comfort rather than truth. But we cannot understand the meaning of Pride without telling the truth about some of those who stood up first, Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Stormé DeLarverie. These are not symbolic names. They are the heart of a movement that continues to be shaped by those still fighting at the intersections of race, gender, poverty, and queerness. When we erase that reality, we erase the ongoing struggle.

Today we face much the same challenge. While much progress has been made, it is all to easy to slide into the false freedom of privilege and fail to see how others remain subjugated and attacked. All the while, the ground we’ve won is being diminished every day. We remember our history- we tell our story- so that we do not have to repeat it.

Pride is resistance!