The theme of gay pride parades around the country are dramatically shifting from celebrating gender and sexuality choices to a militant call to resist what organizers regard as oppressive societal and government forces. Parades will no longer be parades; they are "resistance marches." With Trump as President, the country, especially the LGBT community is in grave danger. It's as if a terrorist, not a patriot, has moved into the White House.
After witnessing the large crowds of protesters drawn to the pro-abortion Women's March on Washington, D.C., last January, one day after Trump's inauguration, Los Angeles entrepreneur Brian Pendleton had an idea. He wrote, "Floats and marching bands are nice when we are not at war. Now is the time we shake things up and take to the streets. The idea has caught on in many other locals. Planned 'Resist Marches' join several streams of protest and dissatisfaction coalescing under a single banner of "Equality March for Unity and Pride. This has become an international effort. The shift seems not be about feelings, not facts.
There is a high level of fear in what is happening in our country, and even though we still have the right to marry and all the rights we had won before Trump took office, having our human rights stripped from us and going backward creates an underlying terror. That is where the sense of militant dissatisfaction with typical gay pride festivities is rising.
There seems to be a need to return to the gay movement's counter-cultural roots. The majority of LGBT pride parades around the world were born out of protest. At this time there is a heightened threat level that is being actively promoted. Is this being promoted to bring as many people as possible into having a sense of personal threat to their well-being. I believe the threats are valid and too close to factual than is comfortable!
So what is the undefined threat? Who is the amorphous enemy? The ResistMarch.org Facebook page declares, "When any american's rights are under threat, all our rights are threatened. We are LGBTQ+. We are people of color. We are people of different faits. We are people of all genders and no gender. We are immigrants. We are dreamers. We are people with disabilities. We are parents. We are allies. And we are beautiful intersections of these. But most of all, we are American. Yet our rights are in jeopardy. Forces are gathering in government that intend to take away our hard-won basic human rights."
So, what do we resist? Who or what exactly threatens us? Many of us participate in pride events because of the alarms that are sounding and make impassioned pleas of resistance. But some who normally participate in these events are unclear on what they are being asked to do. They are even skeptical about the pride parades' co-opting by militant gay and transgender forces.
The focused target is the Trump administration and resist marches across the country have focused on that. But is feels like the hate being directed toward everyone who isn't white, Christian, Republican, and heterosexual runs deeper and is older than Trumps chaotic administration. The anger this country has runs deeper than the threat of government, racial, and religious tyranny. It is thinly veiled in rage against each of those but many of us feel the hatred that is coming from a dark and buried place that most of us sense but do not remember how many generations if has been lingering or exactly what it is. Perhaps watching this anger and those fearful folks who voted for Trump and who are beginning to act the anger out will be the best way to bring into consciousness the true hatred that is at the roots of our American imbalance. Only then will we be truly confidant what to resist and what the real threat is.
