Pride didn’t begin with a parade. It began with a riot.

On June 28, 1969, Queer and Trans people — led by courageous Black and Brown Trans women like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera — stood up to police violence at the Stonewall Inn in New York City. Their resistance was not sanctioned, safe, or polite. It was a survival-driven rebellion against a system that criminalized their existence and tried to erase them. That refusal to back down sparked a movement that still fuels our fight for collective liberation today.

Each June, we honor that uprising, not because we've forgotten but because we draw strength from it. Especially now in 2025 — when Queer and Trans communities are once again in the crosshairs as a distraction from larger political corruption — it reminds us of the power we hold when we resist together.

Across the country, LGBTQIA+ rights are being systematically stripped away. Under the current administration, we’ve seen a surge in anti-Queer legislation, attacks on gender-affirming care, and renewed efforts to ban Transgender people from military service and existence. These are not isolated incidents: They are part of a national effort to silence, marginalize, and criminalize us — to reverse decades of hard-won progress and to make us feel powerless, invisible, and afraid.

But Stonewall taught us that even when the system is stacked against us, we are never powerless when we act together.

Even here in Seattle, a city often seen as a haven for progress, our community is not untouched. Discrimination, housing insecurity, and healthcare gaps continue to disproportionately impact Queer and Trans people, especially those who are Black, Brown, Indigenous, disabled, or undocumented. Adding insult to injury, Seattle Pride is facing a projected $350,000 shortfall as major corporate sponsors quietly pull out. The same companies that once rushed to paint their logos in rainbow hues are now turning their backs on our community when things get politically uncomfortable.

Let’s be clear: Pride has never needed corporate permission. Stonewall didn’t have sponsors — it has survivors. And today, Pride lives not only in parades but also in community organizations that hold the line, doing the work and building the future to exist, gather, and fight — without fanfare or financial safety nets.

That spirit is alive in Seattle and across Washington. It lives in the work of grassroots organizations like Queer Power Alliance, Gender Justice League, Entre Hermanos, Lavender Rights Project, QLaw, and TRACTION, to name only a few. These groups are leading with care and courage, offering mutual aid, legal advocacy, culturally competent healthcare referrals, housing support, and more. They are shaping policy and pushing back against the narrative that our lives are expendable.

This is what the heart of Pride looks like, not floats or photo ops. Pride is policy change rooted in lived experience. Pride is leadership that reflects our communities. Pride is demanding housing justice, access to healthcare, and safety without compromise. And that’s where our support, funding, and solidarity must go.

If we want to honor Stonewall, we must show up in the same spirit: with boldness, urgency, and the refusal to be sidelined. That means defending Washington’s gender-affirming xare protections. It means advancing policies like HB 1217 (rent stabilization), SB 5181 (student privacy), and HB 1296 (support for LGBTQIA+ youth in public schools). And it means recommitting ourselves to the work of building safety, access, and belonging year-round, not just in June.

The protest at Stonewall didn’t happen because people thought they could win. It happened because people knew they wouldn’t survive by staying silent. That’s where we are again — at a moment that demands not just remembrance but resistance.

Let’s meet it with clarity, courage, and the collective power of our communities, because that’s how we’ve always made history.

Taylor Farley is Executive Director of Queer Power Alliance , a nonprofit working to empower Washington communities, advocate for change, and ensure a future where all LGBTQIA+ people can thrive.