Pride and Solidarity

Friends and Constituents,

It's been another busy week. I spent four and a half hours trying to fight the DC Blox data center near Irvington. I testified about the Statehouse oppression and robbery that is destroying our roads at the Public Works Committee meeting in Pike Township. And though I personally don't like parades, I went down to Mass Ave to celebrate Pride yesterday. This week, my video is stating the same thing as my newsletter, but still watch it and then read afterwards:

Pride was a riot.

When police violently raided the Stonewall Inn gay bar in Greenwich Village, 24-year-old trans woman Marsha P. Johnson threw the first rock to fight back. Her 18-year-old comrade Sylvia Rivera was right there as well, and together with other oppressed people nearby, they physically fought back against the oppression.

The year was 1969, and the police had a Public Morals Squad who forced people to dress according to gender norms and assaulted those who refused. The gay community and its allies in New York City rioted multiple times over the next week to demand full rights and equality.

When we celebrate Pride today, remember that we are celebrating solidarity.

When the government and other powerful forces try to oppress any minority, we should all realize that we could easily be next.

As labor unions put it, “An injury to one is an injury to all.”

Or, as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., put it, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Bigots like Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith make this obvious. Beckwith attacks trans and gay people, Muslims, immigrants, Black people, and women - all at the same time.

This type of Christian Nationalist must absolutely be stopped from instituting his brand of fascism.

But some people are more insidious, and try to distance themselves from the groups under the most attack, as a way of sparing themselves from attacks by bigots.

Last year, multiple Indiana Democrats chose to vote along with Republicans to attack trans people. They didn’t need to do this. Republicans have a supermajority in both houses of the legislature. But they felt that demonstrating that they had things in common with bigots was more important than demonstrating solidarity with the trans community.

Don’t get it twisted by my attacks on the Republicans. The modern-day GOP is a fascist party that absolutely must be stopped. In fact, that’s WHY I am so harsh when I speak out against Democrats who fail to stand on their principles. We cannot afford leadership that snivels and cowers rather than stand against oppression.

The way forward is solidarity, just as it’s always been. I stand with all those under attack. If they come for one of us, they face all of us.

Love and solidarity. Happy pride.

Jesse