There's Never Been a Better Time for the LGBTQ+ Rights Movement
Views expressed in The Advocate’s opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, Pride Media.If you asked us to think of a timeless sentence, an evergreen sentiment that would be relevant no matter what period of history it was said in, we might offer, “It’s a really tough time to be in the LGBTQ civil rights movement.”It was a tough time in the ’70s, during Anita Bryant’s antigay “Save Our Children” crusade.It was a tough time in the ’80s, when President Reagan’s loudest comment on the AIDS epidemic was silence.It was a tough time in the ’90s, when media coverage of the murder of Brandon Teena widely misgendered him and he was buried with a headstone reading “sister, daughter, friend.” It was tough in the 2000s, when we saw an avalanche of constitutional and statutory bans on marriage equality.
It was tough even in the 2010s, despite what seemed like a cascade of legal and legislative victories, including the defeat of North Carolina’s anti-transgender “bathroom bill” — as the murder epidemic of transgender women, especially trans women of color, grew more and more dire.And now, half a century out from “Save Our Children,” here we are again.
This year alone, there have been hundreds of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatures, of which 117 are explicitly anti-transgender.It’s always been a tough time.
And yet — we’ve always found a way to prevail over attacks on our community. And even more importantly, we’ve always found ways to cultivate joy, to find community, and to keep our heads held high no matter what the world threw at us.
