The LGBTQ community is often asked, “Do you need to celebrate Pride anymore with big parades?”
No one ever asks Veterans, Italians, and Irish whether they need to have their big Pride parades.
That said, in NYC, the Pride Parade brings out such a diverse group of LGBTQ community members and supporters that it’s a sight to behold. We are not just a group of great looking, muscle-bound white men as the media portrays us—we are from all walks of life, all races, shapes and sizes. Importantly, there’s political power in numbers.
Keeping visible to our families, friends, and neighbors must continue to be a priority for LGBTQ. The right’s maneuvers to strips our rights depend on our being quiet and embarrassed about ourselves.
In Hungary, the Budapest Pride Parade became a moment of deep resistance to fascism. They want us to shut up and disappear. We will just get louder.