This isn't to say it has always been easy. In the 1970's, LGBTQIA+ individuals faced a widespread legal and systemic oppression. Sodomy laws across the United States criminalized relationships between same sex individuals, and those arrested were often beaten or killed in police custody. Medical and Psychiatric organizations classified same-sex attraction as a disorder and widespread treatments included institutionalization and chemical or surgical interventions. Intersex individuals were routinely non-medically altered at birth without the consent of their parents, and transgender and gender non-conforming individuals were subject to many of the same legal oppression as those with same sex relationships. Embracing a LGBQTIA+ identity at the time quite literally meant risking death, and often being pushed to the margins of mainstream society.

This all came to a head at the Stonewall Nightclub in New York during the summer of 1969, where a violent police raiding party looking to harm and oppress bar patrons was met with resistance. After police started beating the bar patrons under arrest, the gathered crowd instead of dispersing, resisted, kicking off 5 days of uprising in the Greenwich neighborhood. The following year, community organizers held the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day Parade, to celebrate being alive and proud of their identity, and to rally for human rights. At a time when just existing without hiding was an act of defiance, these parades were a call to society to reckon with treatment of people they would prefer to ignore the existence of.

These early events, including the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Parade, laid the foundation for other groups, including the national Pride celebrations that now take place around the world. Organizers and allies alike continued to rally in their communities to stop the violence against LGBTQIA+ individuals and worked tirelessly to shift both public opinion and the legal landscape toward justice and equal rights.

Over the 5 decades since the uprising, same sex relationships have been decriminalized and are no longer listed as a disorder by all major US health organizations. LGBTQIA+ citizens have more federal protections, including rights to housing, equal consideration for civil service jobs, marriage in all 50 states, and non-discrimination in schools under the Title IX laws. However, for just as many preciously won protections, there have been many setbacks along the way. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," legislation during the 90's ushered in two decades of fear and discrimination in the US Armed Services. The AIDs epidemic during the 80's was intentionally allowed to ravage the gay community by the Reagan Administration. More recently, under Trump, federal protections against discrimination for LGBTQIA+ were rolled back by executive action, and conservative Supreme Court Justices have expressed a desire to reverse Marriage Equality in future court sessions. In addition, though much of the legal discrimination has been eliminated or overturned, LGBTQIA+ citizens are still subject to defacto discrimination in their local communities, and many cannot afford representation when they are unfairly targeted.

Pride and other service organizations are a vital part of the ongoing everday struggle for acceptance, love, and equal rights across the United States. The goals of the movement are not to set community members apart, or create special privilege, but rather to ensure that LGBTQIA+ people have a safe and welcoming place in our everyday public life, and equal protection under the law. It is together, with allies and other marginalized groups, that we build a rainbow bridge to a better, more just future. In the vision of National Pride, as well as Trinity Pride, all our lives are enriched, and our world is a better place for all of us when we accomplish it!