June 30, 2019

The first Pride was a riot

I’d known about Marsha P. Johnson, but not about Stormé DeLarverie, drag icon.

There’s always history no one will teach you, just there’s always stories no one has bothered to add to the canon.

But there are rarely any voiceless people; there are many people whom we have chosen to silence, whose pleas we have chosen to ignore.

Today I get to march, today I get to paint rainbows on my face while surrounded by symbols of corporate pink-washing. And today I get to march, to raise a fist for Marsha and for Stormé. And for Brooklyn Lindsey and the crisis of murdered black transwomen. And for the folks who are as yet too at risk to raise the flag of their own.