Pride month brings our annual remembrance of the Stonewall uprisings in 1969. Yet, it is no secret, nor an exaggeration, that many of us are feeling demoralized, alienated from one another, and ideologically and politically unsafe. So many of us have lost jobs and opportunities from a myriad of industries, and for those of us that are also academic, we have witnessed and suffered from the deep cuts to intersectional programming and departments at various universities. Writers, publishers, and educators have been fighting against local and nationwide book bans, and LGBTQ+ folks have been immensely harmed and bombarded by the 700+ anti-LGBTQ+ bills that were introduced nationwide in 2026. Even worse, in April of this year, the FBI asked Congress to fund a new task force, which is aimed at LGBTQ+ people who the FBI has now designated as domestic terrorists just for being themselves.
A destructive, misogynist, transphobic, anti-Black, anti-immigrant, and homophobic political agenda is being dressed up as a “return to family values”; through legislation it has already severely and negatively impacted multiple identities and communities. All of us are being made to bear witness to daily recurrences of state violence against the undocumented, the unhoused, and the most vulnerable folks in our neighborhoods.
All of us must do something before it’s too late.
The seeds for this current attack on marginalized people were sown years ago with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the shredding of the voting rights and civil rights acts should have been huge signals of where we were headed. When companies and universities began to quickly end their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at the behest of the new administration, their work was made that much easier with business interests already grabbing hold of university boards years ago.
Trans people are being forced to surrender their driver’s licenses, being added to state registries, being banned from public restrooms, and subjected them to fines, a felony, or even jail time if they attempt to use public facilities. Institutions have ended their Black studies, gender studies, and LGBTIQ+ studies programs and departments, characterizing our disciplines as meritless, divisive, and even harmful. Make no mistake, those in power are invested in doing this because they have witnessed the power that is held within our communities. They understand that the biggest threat to their anti-Black, anti- queer, and anti-immigrant agenda is diverse, equitable, and inclusive education, gender affirming care, affordable housing, and the freedom to live unburdened by the harmful systems of racial biases and gendered and sexual animus.
While the here and now seems terrifying and outrageous, those of us on the margins, to use Audre Lorde’s words, already know that while we have never been safe, we have always pushed back. When literacy tests tried to prevent Black folks from voting, we as a community pushed back. When police raided queer bars and our fellow activists’ homes, trying to humiliate them, out them, abuse them, we as a community pushed back. When politicians of the past and the politicians of the now have used our identities and our communities as a political playground, subjecting us and those we love to scrutiny, surveillance, and violence, we as a community have pushed back. When media makers have erased us or co-opted us, we as a community have pushed back.
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Pride month brings our annual remembrance of the Stonewall uprisings in 1969. Yet, it is no secret, nor an exaggeration, that many of us are feeling demoralized, alienated from one another, and ideologically and politically unsafe. So many of us have lost jobs and opportunities from a myriad of industries, and for those of us that are also academic, we have witnessed and suffered from the deep cuts to intersectional programming and departments at various universities. Writers, publishers, and educators have been fighting against local and nationwide book bans, and LGBTQ+ folks have been immensely harmed and bombarded by the 700+ anti-LGBTQ+ bills that were introduced nationwide in 2026. Even worse, in April of this year, the FBI asked Congress to fund a new task force, which is aimed at LGBTQ+ people who the FBI has now designated as domestic terrorists just for being themselves.
A destructive, misogynist, transphobic, anti-Black, anti-immigrant, and homophobic political agenda is being dressed up as a “return to family values”; through legislation it has already severely and negatively impacted multiple identities and communities. All of us are being made to bear witness to daily recurrences of state violence against the undocumented, the unhoused, and the most vulnerable folks in our neighborhoods.
All of us must do something before it’s too late.
The seeds for this current attack on marginalized people were sown years ago with the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the shredding of the voting rights and civil rights acts should have been huge signals of where we were headed. When companies and universities began to quickly end their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at the behest of the new administration, their work was made that much easier with business interests already grabbing hold of university boards years ago.
Trans people are being forced to surrender their driver’s licenses, being added to state registries, being banned from public restrooms, and subjected them to fines, a felony, or even jail time if they attempt to use public facilities. Institutions have ended their Black studies, gender studies, and LGBTIQ+ studies programs and departments, characterizing our disciplines as meritless, divisive, and even harmful. Make no mistake, those in power are invested in doing this because they have witnessed the power that is held within our communities. They understand that the biggest threat to their anti-Black, anti- queer, and anti-immigrant agenda is diverse, equitable, and inclusive education, gender affirming care, affordable housing, and the freedom to live unburdened by the harmful systems of racial biases and gendered and sexual animus.
While the here and now seems terrifying and outrageous, those of us on the margins, to use Audre Lorde’s words, already know that while we have never been safe, we have always pushed back. When literacy tests tried to prevent Black folks from voting, we as a community pushed back. When police raided queer bars and our fellow activists’ homes, trying to humiliate them, out them, abuse them, we as a community pushed back. When politicians of the past and the politicians of the now have used our identities and our communities as a political playground, subjecting us and those we love to scrutiny, surveillance, and violence, we as a community have pushed back. When media makers have erased us or co-opted us, we as a community have pushed back.
We have always pushed back, because we as a community have always understood that to be Black, or to be LGBTQ+, or to be an immigrant, is to be powerful, and that it is our duty to add our voices, our labor, and our energy to the worldwide expression of outrage that is now surrounding us.
But there are still some of us that are not convinced that terror or harm is coming their way because it has yet to reach their doorstep, or because they’ve designated the harm as not an LGBTQ+ issue. Let this month of June serve as a reminder that all issues are LGBTQ+ issues. LGBTQIA people exist in every single community. We exist in poor communities, Black communities, Latinx communities, immigrant communities, undocumented, and unhoused communities. So, when we’re talking about war, genocide, reproductive justice, all of those issues are LGBTQ+ issues. It’s not just marriage equality, not just drag shows, and not just nightclub restrictions.
Our humanity and freedom are bound up with one another, and the time is now to make that plain and start building the future that we want, not one that is mandated. Black and Latinx LGBTQ+ communities have already been working to abolish the systems and practices that harm us, and y’all who haven’t, need to join us before it’s too late.
Dr. Kaila Story is a full professor in the Departments of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Pan-African Studies, as well as the Audre Lorde Endowed Chair at the University of Louisville.
