ON PROTESTS AND PRIDE

It’s Pride Month. It may have been easy to forget, right? Rainbow flags will unfurl eventually, but this moment in time isn’t about the LGBTQ community. As protestors gather around the world, including at the U.S. embassy in Paris, it’s hard not to feel like we’ve been here before. Somehow, though, it feels different.

George Floyd’s death seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, though the camel was already shattered and cracked for years. How previous straws haven’t created widespread change will always frustrate many Americans. History will look back on this moment as a turning point – hopefully – as another major step in civil rights, in equality, in a lessening of racial tensions. Is it naïve to think this way? Perhaps, but we’ve seen change. We know it’s possible. We know these protests can lead to shifts in thinking in New York, Paris, and beyond.

Such change emanates from the U.S., rarely contained within its borders. It’s the kind of spread we want to see, the kind that can’t be contained by masks and hand sanitizer. We’re feeling it in Paris, and its effects may be seen in the years to come. It’s not like racial inequality is nonexistent in France, after all.

Stonewall in New York did it for the LGBTQ community. It was a step, sure, but one that helped lead to marriage equality in France in 2015. It took time, but progress is a local train that has lots of stops to make before it reaches its destination, and the timetable is far from fixed. That’s not to say that the French hadn’t been fighting for equality, but the vociferousness of the American experiment has always caught global attention in ways that help catalyze change. 

We’re seeing it already. Protests around the world from New Zealand to Amsterdam are crying for justice, for reform, for peace. Black lives matter. We all agree. Even Grindr is on board. If only the White House could join the rest of us. It’s a work in progress.

Now what? Like our LGBTQ predecessors who turned the Stonewall protests into an annual event, who spun parades out to cities and nations far and wide, who never relented or ceased to innovate, we need the same sort of constant forward momentum now. We need everyone to come out and rally behind racial injustice and police brutality, to take risks, to be afraid, to be strong. It’s not a movement that exists for your Instagram, but the more genuine noise we make, the better.

We’re attending rallies when possible, and hope you are, too. Be safe and responsible, and be solidaire as we say in French. Racial inequality won’t go away – just like homophobia won’t – but the more of us that are united against it, the less harm it can do.