Grassroots Takes PRIDE

By Ellen Bender

Pride Weekend is one of my favorite times in NYC. When my kids were young, we lived on 10th Street in the heart of Greenwich Village, and they loved the colorful costumes and energy. As young adults, they rejected other weekend plans (including parent-funded trips to Europe!) in favor of being in Manhattan for Pride Weekend. They explained to their boomer parents the difference between the various parades – the corporate one, the non-corporate one, the Queer Liberation March, and the Dyke March.

My favorite way to commemorate Pride is to attend Pride Shabbat services at Congregation Bet Simchat Torah (CBST) in New York City. For decades Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum led the LGBTQ+ congregation. You might recognize the name. Rabbi Kleinbaum is the founder of The Beacon, a group that gathers on street corners on Thursday evenings at 7 pm with signs of resistance and opposition to the Trump regime. I’m always moved to tears singing along to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “I Am What I Am” from “La Cage Aux Folles,” anthems to humanity, free expression and a belief in a better future. In 2019 the congregation hosted award-winning playwright and national treasure Tony Kushner as a guest speaker. In a brilliant and wide-ranging address, he spoke these words, which resonate just as strongly today:

Let's not fall silent when it's immoral to do so. Let's not lose the name of action. But let's not lose the names by which we know ourselves to be human, or the names by which we apprehend the holiness of God.

This year, unfortunately, the joy is tinged with fear. The Trump regime’s hostility to LGBTQ people was obvious from the start when it issued a slew of anti-LGBTQ Executive Orders. This month has been particularly hard with the Supreme Court’s “incoherent new attack on trans rights” in United States v. Skrmetti last week, and Trump’s cruel decision to cut the specialized suicide prevention service for LGBTQ+ youth. To add insult to injury, the Trumpified National Park Service will not include the transgender pride flag in the Pride flag display at Stonewall even though trans women of color were leaders in the uprising against law enforcement. For those of us with family members and friends impacted by these orders and actions, the pain is acute.

Rather than becoming demoralized and despondent, however, let’s commemorate Pride with joyful resistance this weekend of June. Whether you are LGBTQ or an ally, show up at a Pride celebration, sing, dance and stand in solidarity. If you showed up for Hands Off, May Day, No Kings, Tesla Takedown, show up for Pride. This year, it is more important than ever.

This weekend will mark the culmination of this year’s Pride Month, but we in the grassroots community can continue to be allies in the coming months. It is likely that there will be more Supreme Court decisions and executive orders targeting members of the LGBTQ community and we should be prepared to rally and march with them. We can support LGBTQ candidates and LGBTQ supportive candidates for office and write postcards of support and gratitude to LGBTQ elected officials like Representatives Sarah McBride and Robert Garcia.

Markers For Democracy, Downtown Nasty Women Social Group, and Team Min, three grassroots groups based in New York City, are collaborating with Christopher Street Project, the only group in the country solely dedicated to electing champions for the transgender community. According to Tyler Hack, Christopher Street Project’s young founder:

Christopher Street Project has been on the frontlines fighting Trump’s attacks on the transgender community, because we know that no government can take away our identities. We have been so proud to work with Markers For Democracy, Downtown Nasty Women Social Group, and Team Min to build political power for the trans community – power that has never before been fully realized.

Our three groups recently hosted a meet and greet for the first candidate endorsed by Christopher Street, Adelita Grijalva, who is running in the Democratic primary in a special election in Arizona’s 7th Congressional District. We look forward to hosting more Christopher Street-endorsed candidates over the coming months and working with them on events throughout the year. Check out the Christopher Street Project’s website for more ways to get involved. Happy Pride!

Ellen Bender is a co-founder of Markers for Democracy in NYC. A video recording of a recent discussion between her and Susan Wagner can be found here