Happy Pride!
We are connected by currents of humanity
alliances, allegiances, histories
What we leave behind
matters to those who go before
we face the future with our backs
sailing shore to shore
for the salt in the sea
like the salt in our blood
like the dust of our bones
our final return to mud
will sustain those who follow
- Unity, Dr. Selina Tusitala Marsh, New Zealand Poet Laureate 2017-2019
And today,
today we celebrate a continuum that contains multitudes.
We celebrate a present that is markedly improved from decades past.
Yet this year alone, there are 77 anti-LGBTQ bills passed into law so far.
For further context, there are 491 active bills right now. The bad kind. The ones on the wrong
side of history.
These bills and laws restrict, and confine, and make small, the souls of youth as the means for
political gain.
It is crushing to read about all of the evolving tactics a state imposes on our future.
For however far we have traveled -- we still have a long way to go.
But over and against each new measure's attempts to diminish who we are, we defiantly
celebrate.
We gather here, today, among our friends and loved ones,
to hold up and hold fast to the one week where we unapologetically exist in the world.
We come out, and march, and express joy for who we are.
We remind ourselves that we are queer, and that is damn awesome.
And we celebrate a past of activists, artists, and individuals just trying to get by
whose collective action set a foundation for pride month’s existence at all.
But pride does not just derive from one inciting event in 1969 in New York City.
We have been carving spaces for ourselves for as long as we have needed to - which is always.
Which means that today, we will celebrate a future, where those spaces will look, and feel, and
be, more than we can even envision at present.
What we leave behind matters to those who go before.
My hope for myself is that, through whatever currents of humanity I've navigated,
that I leave it better than how I found it.
That my actions in this world
do not undo the unfathomably hard fought progress set in motion by all those who came before.
That my actions - or inaction - do not, in some way, spin us backwards.
This is my barometer of doubt.
Reasonable or unreasonable, this is it.
But what we leave behind matters to those who go before.
And I know the work we do now
particularly in the midst of some undeniably egregious legislation
marks a path, however faint, that started before the 60s,
continued forward through some devastating losses in the 80s,
pushed on despite Clinton in the 90s,
and breaks trail into a time and space that I would never be so bold to even attempt to predict.
We will face the future with our backs
sailing shore to shore
The youth and young people of our current generation will chart courses that extend beyond my
boldest imagination.
They will push beyond those outer boundaries and sail out into some beautiful new territories.
May they find lands upon which to build the same stalwart communities I am so fortunate to call
my own.
May the road rise up to meet them.
May the wind be always at their back.
for the salt in the sea
like the salt in our blood
like the dust of our bones
our final return to mud
will sustain those who follow
Abd what we leave behind
will hopefully make those go went before
proud for the potential of our future.
