Nothing To Be Proud Of

❝❝Yesterday was Seattle’s observance of Pride, the annual celebration of the Stonewall riots of June 28th, 1969, in which queer people said “no more” to police violence against them. But though the riots were started by black trans sex workers & drag sex workers, one wouldn’t know it from the modern celebrations which commemorate their struggle. In nearly every US city, the celebrations are run and dominated by white, vanilla cisgender people who not only have never done sex work, but in many cases actively work to throw sex workers under the bus. They seem to care so little for the “T” in “LGBT” that in many cases trans people have established separate (though chronologically adjacent) celebrations, and are so embarrassingly tone-deaf to the continuing struggle of black people that they eagerly invite cops and politicians to participate in the Pride events which purport to honor queer people’s struggle against the very institutions those “authorities” represent. ❞❞
     — Maggie McNeill

Tags: clipping ∙ Seattle ∙ Pride ∙ Stonewall riots ∙ 1969 ∙ black trans sex workers ∙ drag sex workers ∙ white, vanilla cisgender people ∙ LGBT ∙ queer ∙ institutions ∙ Maggie McNeill