Pride is a celebration. Beyond that it is a time to honour not just our pride and queer joy, but also the resilience and solidarity among our 2SLGBTQIA+ members, the communities we exist in, and the allies who are part of our collective fight.
This Pride month, we reflect on the moment we are in: while attacks on queer rights are on the rise, public support for queer visibility and queer rights declined in Canada last year.
Around the world we are seeing a rise in authoritarianism that directly targets queer people: from Trump’s America, to the banning of Pride in Hungary under Viktor Orban’s right-wing queer censorship, to the rise of anti-queer and anti-trans rhetoric we see growing in our own country.
These attacks on the Queer community are part of an effort not only to demoralize us, but to divide us and leave 2SLGBTQIA+ community members isolated and afraid.
The Queer community is watching as the rights we’ve fought so hard for over generations are being stripped away: sometimes slowly, and sometimes with a quick stroke of a pen.
The dominant perception that “this could never happen here” no longer rings true. Worse, it fuels complacency in our country and supports the voices who are hellbent on silencing queer joy and our right to live free of discrimination.
Anti-2SLGBTQIA+ forces are powerful and gaining traction in their attempts to drive any voice perceived as “other” or “different” underground. In Canada, we’ve seen politicians trying to score cheap political points by scapegoating members of the trans community, amplifying misinformation and attempting to normalize dangerous anti-trans rhetoric.
Instead of addressing the real challenges our communities are facing — such as the rise in the cost of living, housing, and impacts of the ecological crisis — right-wing politicians are attempting to divide and distract us from their true agendas: to roll-back our rights and push forward their for-profit and pro-corporate agenda, which leaves all communities and workers behind.
At home in Ontario, it is these same forces that are attempting to disenfranchise Indigenous communities (whose rights are being suspended under Doug Ford’s recently passed Bill 5), black and racialized communities whose access to education is being attacked under Bill 33, and all other marginalized groups who dare to challenge Doug Ford’s agenda.
These forces will always do everything in their power to attack the voices that challenge their power and the systems that perpetuate it. That is why, during Pride month, we must raise our voices of resistance – because, as our communities screamed during the AIDS crisis, silence equals death.
Protecting LGBTQIA+ rights is an ongoing and never-ending fight. Together, we make progress by recognizing how deeply our fights are interconnected. If we allow them to silence us, we lose our true strength: solidarity.
As trade unionists, we have a long and important history of resisting hate and division. Now more than ever we must also commit to building a movement where no one is left behind.
The labour movement must do what it does best – take to the streets, fight, and never back down in the face of discrimination and injustice.
Pride is a celebration rooted in a deep and rich history of revolution and resistance. We owe our deepest gratitude and solidarity to those who paved the path for us to take on the fights of today. It is that gratitude and solidarity that must fuel our resistance.