This month, SEARAC pays special homage to the intersectionalities of Pride Month, Immigrant Heritage Month, and the Black Lives Matter movement, along with Juneteenth on Friday and World Refugee Day on Saturday.
The origin of Pride is considered by many to have taken place on June 28, 1969, when patrons of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York City, resisted and rioted against ongoing and violent police raids on the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community. With Black and Brown trans women like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Miss Major Griffin-Gracy leading the fight for the LGBTQ+ community’s civil rights, these protests lasted for six days and invigorated a movement. A year later, the community gathered and marched to commemorate the Stonewall riots against police brutality, discrimination, and harassment, paving the way for Pride as we know it today.
“We celebrate with our LGBTQ+ community members in honoring these past five decades of progress, made possible through the courage and commitment of LGBTQ+ leaders, organizers, and activists, including many in the Southeast Asian American community,” said Quyen Dinh, executive director of SEARAC. “But the fight is not over. LGBTQ+ Americans still experience grave injustices, from health and employment discrimination and lack of access to proper healthcare, to police violence, hate crimes, and the denial of civil rights by the highest level of government. In our SEAA community’s 45th anniversary year amidst a global pandemic, with a swell of urgency for our elected officials to dismantle systems of oppression and take action in defense of Black lives, we will continue to fight for human rights for all.”