It’s the first Pride of the second Trump administration, but phrases like “Happy Pride” might feel a little bit hollow. With everything that we’ve seen in the last few months (not to mention last year’s campaigns), and with three and a half more years of this, it can feel too dark out there to want to celebrate much of anything.
However, that’s exactly why Pride is so very important this year.
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After a war of propaganda that hit us right in the mental health, the last five months have been rough. We’ve seen so many attacks on the LGBTQ+ community. While bills and executive orders have primarily targeted trans people, nobody is safe, especially if they don’t conform to traditional gender norms in ways as basic as being a cis woman with a short haircut.
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Book bans aren’t just targeting titles that deal with gender issues, but sexuality as well. Restrictions on the support of diversity are affecting everyone. Corporations are loudly getting the message that they need to ease up on the support of anything LGBTQ+. And while experts suggest Obergefell is unlikely to be overturned, some Republicans have already voiced a desire to end marriage equality.
Beyond the concrete harm that the second Trump administration is causing through legislation, their pettiness on related issues knows no bounds. It’s not enough to ban trans people from the military; the deadline for voluntary departure had to be set at the start of Pride month. It’s not enough to strip the names of LGBTQ+ heroes from sites; the removal of Harvey Milk’s name from a ship had to be done during Pride month.
The cruelty is the point. They want to beat us down. And it’s all so mentally draining. When we feel like curling into a ball and pretending the world doesn’t exist, the idea of going to a party and a parade can feel laughable.
But that feeling is exactly what they want from us, and it comes from a privileged misunderstanding of what Pride is about. There are many of us who have had the fortune to grow up in a world where Pride is a party, first and foremost, while thoughts of fighting are present, they’re secondary.
That’s a good thing. We should all want to live in a world where nobody has to live in fear of their basic rights and existence being taken away. We should want Pride to simply be about celebrating who we are.
But the origins of Pride are in the Civil Rights Movement and in protest. Pride came from a community that was being pushed down by hate and stood up to say no more, to demand dignity and reject shame. It came in protest, and it came in community action and support.
We desperately need to turn up for Pride this year. Not because we’re celebrating the current situation, but because we’re celebrating that we still exist in spite of it. We’re celebrating that they can’t keep us down, that we’re here, and that we’re queer.
It’s about turning up five months into this awful administration, looking them in the eye, and telling them that we’re not going to take it, that we’re going to fight back, and that their attempts to erase us will never be successful. They’re winning some battles, but they’re fighting a war against identities that have been here for thousands of years and will exist until the day that the human race fades from this universe.
We have had dark times before. 2025 is pretty bad so far. But Pride as we know it today was born during the early Nixon administration, when our existence was criminalized and considered a mental illness. Pride continued through the Reagan administration and the height of the AIDS crisis, when politicians could mock AIDS and homosexuality and just get laughs.
We’re at a point today where there are those of us who don’t know about every facet of every struggle. There are those who don’t know about the AIDS blanket and everything that it represents. There are people who will march at Pride this year who don’t remember a time before Obergefell, a time when queer people couldn’t marry who they loved. None of that is a failing on their part. That’s what we have fought for: that they can exist without having to know all of the trauma that has been inflicted on us. But as we enter a new battle, we have to make sure we know not only who we are, but also where we come from.
So, we have to go out. We have to celebrate Pride, we have to celebrate that we exist.
But we also have to remember the fight while we’re there, and we have to do our part in it. That might be as simple as signing up for newsletters from places like the HRC, the ACLU, or EitM so we can stay informed and know where to help. It might mean looking at local actions you can take to support your community. It might mean contacting your representatives, or it might mean running to become one.
Enjoy Pride, that’s half of the point. But remember that the other half this year has to be a fight. This is about establishing ourselves as part of this society. A part that has always been here, and a part that isn’t going away.
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