Pride Month is about human rights.
Summer is flying by. Pride Month may be over, but as we reflect on all of our activities this summer and particularly in June, we also recommit to our efforts to ensure everyone’s rights are fully protected, respected, and fulfilled.
Pride Month is for the LGBTQI+ community to (re)claim rights and freedoms often denied—and to (re)claim the public space they are often excluded from. It’s a joyful opportunity to celebrate with the LGBTQI+ community.
Yet more than the joy and love celebrated across the world, Pride is also a time to protest—this year especially. President Trump’s administration has unleashed cruelty and chaos, plunging the United States into an era of rampant authoritarian practices, policies, and rhetoric that are recklessly gutting human rights protections and directly endangering people’s lives—and LGBTI+ people are being specifically scapegoated and targeted.
As the cruel wave of policy changes comes into effect, we are reminded of why we come together and why our fight must continue.
WORLDPRIDE
This year, Amnesty participated in WorldPride in June, hosted in Washington, D.C.
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With rainbow flags and cheerful music present alongside calls for action, we were reminded that the spirit of Pride has always been about the fight to live freely and safely. This year’s event featured a host of dedicated Amnesty volunteers echoing the important message that LGBTQI+ rights are human rights.
BONNAROO
Although the festival was cancelled on the second day, the energy at Bonnaroo this year was amped. Our team engaged multiple attendees on Amnesty’s issues, ranging from Mahmoud Khalil and Andry José Hernández Romero’s cases, the Trans Healthcare Access Act and Sudan. In addition to showing up with fans and bandanas to keep Bonnaroovians cool, we supplied them with temporary tattoos, body glitter and stickers so they could adorn themselves with issues that were most important to them.
CHICAGO PRIDEFEST
For the last several years, and especially prior to the pandemic, the AIUSA Chicago Local Group has been tabling at Pride events in Chicago like PrideFest. With attacks on the LGBTQI+ and trans community increasing at an alarming rate, the local group prioritizes attending and supporting the community through action every year.
Members are always grateful for the welcome and support from the LGBTQI+ and trans communities, which helps the group continue to fight for their rights.
While the festivities were filled with love, joy, and celebration, it was also an important time for human rights education and human rights advocacy recruitment efforts.
The challenges continue, but so does our fight
Although Pride Month is just a month, our work to defend LGBTQI+ rights continues during this critical time when freedom of speech, the right to protest, due process, and the rule of law are all under threat.
Since taking office in January, President Trump has actively targeted the LGBTQI+ community. Executive orders that were meant to protect and safeguard LGBTQI+ rights have been rescinded, and new policies have been implemented that negatively impact individuals within this community.
We are seeing a shift toward authoritarian practices in the rollback of human rights protections and gains, particularly for marginalized communities. Some notable policies targeting the LGBTQI+ community include:
- Banning transgender individuals from serving in the military
- Restricting gender markers on official documents like passports and visa applications
- Attempting to censor teachers and schools by encouraging criminal prosecutions for their support to LGBTQI+ students and suggesting their support of LGBTQI+ young people is unpatriotic and anti-American
- Attempting to limit access to gender-affirming medical care, with a recent Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti upholding a lower court’s ruling on a Tennessee law banning gender affirming care for minors
- Prohibiting transgender children from participating in school sports or using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.Â
The rollout of these harmful executive orders and administrative actions to decimate transgender and non-binary people’s rights are part of systematic efforts to push LGBTQI+ communities out of public life, erase their existence, and scapegoat LGBTQI+ communities as a political tactic. This administration is calling for widespread discrimination, harassment and potential violence against transgender and non-binary people in our communities.
What’s more, cruel and dehumanizing rhetoric is inciting violent threats and attacks against LGBTQI+ communities, as rates of violence against transgender people who already face high rates of violence, homelessness, and poverty continue to increase. Trans migrants, particularly trans migrants without papers, trans migrants with disabilities, and Black trans migrants, will face the most persecution, discrimination, harassment, and violence encouraged by this administration’s attacks on transgender and non-binary people. Although threats to LGBTQI+ rights are not new, the Trump administration’s accelerating  and cruel actions are putting lives at risk.
The spirit of Pride continues on all year long
We at Amnesty International will always show our PRIDE and fight for a world where everyone’s rights are fully protected, respected, and fulfilled.
Let us all work in solidarity with LGBTQI+ communities. Let us all fight back against the cruel and harmful rhetoric, policies, and actions pushing LGBTQI+ people to the margins.