This past week St. Thomas along with other parishes in North Fairfax County represented Jesus and the Episcopal Church at Reston PRIDE. LGBTQIA+ PRIDE events have taken many shapes since the first march in 1970, but now they take place in the middle of anxiety as states pass laws criminalizing transgender medical treatment, banning drag queens from public performances, and removing diversity from education. One of the questions I have been asked often is “I agree that you should have equal rights, but why do you have to flaunt and expose yourselves down the middle of Mainstreet?” To answer that let me give you a brief history of Queer Liberation.

• The U.S. inherited anti-sodomy laws from English common law.

• Illinois became the first state to decriminalize same-gender relationships in 1962.

• In 1969, a police raid on a gay bar in New York resulted in the four-day Stonewall Riots.

• The first Gay Liberation March took place on June 28, 1970.

• Harvey Milk became the first openly gay person to hold public office on January 8, 1978.

• Milk encourages artist Gilbert Baker to design a symbol of pride for the gay community. At the San Francisco Gay Liberation Parade in June of ‘78 the Pride Flag became the emblem of PRIDE.

• On November 27, 1978, Milk was assassinated resulting in the White Night Riots in San Francisco. 

• June 5th, 1981 – 5 gay men in Los Angeles are diagnosed with a new disease that would eventually be called Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, AIDS. By 1995, over 500,000 cases had been reported in the U.S. 311,381 of those had died of the disease.

• The AIDS Memorial Quilt debuted on October 11, 1987, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell became US Military policy under the Clinton Administration, but still named homosexuality as a court martial offense. 

• President Clinton became the first US President to visit the Quilt in 1996.

• In June of 2003 the Supreme Court ruled that the criminalization of homosexual relationships was unconstitutional. Before then states had the right to imprison people for consensual relationships. 

• President Obama gives support for gay marriage in 2012, and the Supreme Court grants marriage to same-sex couples in 2015.

• 50 people were shot and killed at the Pulse nightclub during PRIDE in 2016.

• On July 26, 2017, President Trump banned transgender people from serving in the military. The ban was overturned in the first month of the Biden Administration.

• In March of 2022, Ron Desantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida, which requires teachers to out students to their parents.

• Justice Clarence Thomas writes an opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, which stated that the court should reexamine the 2003 decision to legalize gay relationships.

• In March of 2023, TN bans all public drag performances. 

So, why do Queer people march down main streets and parade ourselves in front of God and everybody? Because this country has oppressed, criminalized, and killed us. Some in our communities think that is alright and want to overturn our hard-won rights. 

We’re here, we’re queer, and we’re tired…but we march on.

Joshua Waits, Minister of Evangelism