Let’s face it when you’ve got to go
The only thing you want to know
“A bathroom, is there one nearby?”
A human right they can’t deny

Yet there are those who have control
Over who gets to use the bowl
And the judgment that they render
Is determined by our gender

Used to be signs on the door
Designating who it was for
One sign read She, the other He
But now that number’s up to three

“Those damn transgenders are to blame!”
The right wing politicians claim
“Women be women, men be men
Make America great again!”

Europeans know how to pee
Single toilets marked WC
One at-a-time equality
Whatever future genders may be.

c2016pn

“I am calling all of them” Raimondo said, according to a Providence Journal story. “I am saying to them we are a place of openness and tolerance in Rhode Island and it is a progressive place to start a business.”

PayPal is on the list, Raimondo spokeswoman Marie Aberger told RI Future. “The Governor is constantly reaching out to pitch businesses looking to move or expand, and is reaching out to PayPal to urge them to take a look at Rhode Island now that they have cancelled plans in NC,” she said in an email.

PayPal planned to move 400 jobs to Charlotte, North Carolina but rescinded after North Carolina passed a highly controversial law that strips discrimination protections for LGBTQ people and requires people to use public bathrooms that correspond to their birth gender. Other states, such as Montana, have already contacted PayPal.

While Raimondo touted Rhode Island’s progressive values, she has yet to issue a public sector travel ban to North Carolina, according to the Providence Journal. “I don’t oppose [a travel ban] per se, it’s just that there are many ways to show your support for [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender] issues and we are taking other steps,” Raimondo said according to the Providence Journal. “Other states are doing it as a gesture, a symbol to take a stand against that intolerance. We in Rhode Island are going to take a stand against it by showing that this is a place that embraces all people and is a place of freedom and tolerance.”

Connecticut, New York, Vermont, Washington and Minnesota have all banned state sponsored travel to North Carolina, citing their inability to ensure the civil liberties of its employees and citizens in the Tar Heel state.

The pharmacy/drug store chain is the latest corporate backer of Congressman David Cicilline’s Equality Act bill that would extend Civil Rights protections to gay, lesbian and transgender Americans.

“As a leading health care company, we are proud to endorse the Equality Act and stand with Congressman Cicilline in this effort,” said David Casey, a vice president at CVS Health.

“We have long supported efforts to improve the lives of LGBT Americans by advocating for equal rights and embracing the rich diversity of our colleagues, customers and suppliers,” Casey said. “It is part of our culture to make every individual feel equally valued, respected and appreciated. We will continue to advance our efforts to promote a diverse workforce and recognize that a workplace that embraces diversity and inclusion is good for business, helps attract and retain talent and enables us to fulfill our purpose of helping all people on their path to better health.”

CVS joins 60 other of America’s biggest companies in supporting the legislation. The companies include: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Hewlitt-Packart, IBM, Nike and Monsanto, according to a list provided by Cicilline.

“The companies backing the Equality Act have operations in all 50 states, bring in a combined $1.9 trillion in revenue, and provide 4.2 million jobs in the United States,” said Cicilline spokesman Richard Luchette. “They are providing critical leadership to help expand support for the Equality Act and build momentum to ensure that LGBT Americans can enjoy the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.”

Cicilline introduced the Equality Act in July. It’s intended to extend Civil Rights protections to LGBTQ Americans by explicitly outlawing discrimination in public accommodations, housing, employment and federal funding. In more than half of the states it is legal to discriminate against someone based on their sexual orientation, and deny them services, employment, or housing.

Nothing would change at CVS if and when the Equality Act becomes law, said company spokesman Joseph Goode.

“From a CVS Health ‘workplace’ perspective, the Equality Act wouldn’t change anything. In fact, our employee values, policies and benefits are quite ahead of the curve when it comes to supporting LGBT equality,” he said. “There is, however, a ‘community’ upside to the Equality Act for our LGBT employees as the legislation aims to extend anti-discrimination protections to LGBT individuals in public accommodations, such as housing, employment, federal funding, education, credit, etc.”

CVS made international news and won the praise of First Lady Michelle Obama when it announced in 2014 it would stop selling tobacco products. Today CVS also announced it would invest $50 million in an anti-smoking ad campaign, according to Fortune. In November, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation gave CVS a perfect score on its Equality Index for the second year in a row in 2015. CVS offers employees “health insurance coverage for the medically necessary health care services that transgender people need, including transition-related treatment,” according to a news release.

“Today, in most states, an LGBT person can get married on Saturday, post photos of their wedding on Sunday, and then get fired from their job or thrown out of their apartment on Monday just because of who they are,” said Cicilline. “This is completely wrong. Fairness and equality are core American values, and it’s time we affirm these values by passing the Equality Act into law. I want to thank CVS Health, one of Rhode Island’s leading job creators, for standing with us in this fight today.”

YouthPride reached out to the exclusive Catholic school in Woonoskcet “to offer information and professional development on best practices for supporting transgender students,” according to the release sent by Executive Director Kerri Kanelos, after GoLocalProv reported on Friday the school has a policy against accepting transgender students.

The news enraged former students and gay rights advocates all over Rhode Island.

The private school, which receives some public funding, responded to the criticism with a statement that said, in part: “Mount Saint Charles Academy deeply regrets the unintended hurt feelings at and seeming insensitivity of our policy regarding the acceptance of transgendered young people.  The policy that currently appears in the Mount Saint Charles Student Handbook is not intended to be discriminatory toward transgendered students nor is Mount Saint Charles Academy’s intent or desire to exclude transgender students.  The policy was put in place for the simple reason that Mount Saint Charles feels that its facilities do not presently provide the school with the ability to accommodate transgender students.”

YouthPride, in its statement, said this “is not an acceptable solution to being unprepared to provide a safe and supportive learning environment.”

Said Kanelos, ““I am encouraged by the passionate allies, including hundreds of MSC alumni, who are asking the school to reconsider the policy and work together towards a solution that supports students while respecting the school’s mission. “It is clear that people care deeply about the Mount Saint Charles community and want to ensure that their school is inclusive and supportive.”

Mount Saint Charles said no transgender students have been denied admission to the school based on gender identity.

• Early morning protest against Mount Saint Charles trans-exclusion policy
• Mount Saint Charles Academy responds
• Former students speak out against Mount St. Charles Academy’s trans-exclusive policy
• From the Great Eight Award to “unable to make accommodations” : A response to Mount St. Charles’ policy on transgender students
• Let Mt St Charles know how you feel about their trans exclusion policy
• Mount Saint Charles Academy responds

Some amount of dialogue emerged from this experience. It was wisely suggested, and I’ll paraphrase, that, “When LGBTQ people are invited to events, we need to start asking ‘Who else will be there?’” (Thank you, Jenn Steinfeld)

Still, in the last several months, organizations within the community continue to plan event after event with no POC participation and this is an trend in mainstream LGBTQ community events and organizations throughout the country.

In her book White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness, author Ruth Frankenberg sought to examine this issue within the feminist community by posing the question, “What are the social processes through which white women are created as social actors primed to reproduce racism within the feminist movement?”

What if we rework that question to address the same issue in the LGBTQ community?

What are the social processes through which white members of the LGBTQ community are created as social actors primed to reproduce racism within the LGBTQ movement?

A major social process through which the LGBTQ community interacts is performance events such as musical events, comedy reviews, drag shows, annual festivals, etc. Surely there will be instances where it is impossible to incorporate an accurate cross-section of the community.

Sometimes interest is low and organizers have to book whatever performers they can get. Sometimes the number of performers is so limited that the ideal racial representation is not possible. These things are understandable. But when we see organizers of large-scale, mainstream events continue racial exclusivity year after year, we, as writer Aaron Talley put it, “continually swallow the complexities of being black and queer in this country into their narratives of restrictively safe whiteness.”

I am often reminded of the words of long-time Rhode Island Pride President Rodney Davis, “As we look around, noticing all the people who are with us, we must also ask ourselves, ‘Who is missing?'”

We are living in a time when racial awareness and social consciousness have been elevated to levels we haven’t seen in a generation. Let’s not wait until damage is done and people are left out to ask ourselves, “Who is missing?” Instead, let’s remind ourselves and each other to start asking “Who else will be there?” and let that inform our decisions as to what events we attend.

We are approaching winter. I hope to suggest some books that activists can study amongst themselves so to better grasp how to radicalize their movements. Included on the list are suggestions by Antoinette Gomes of the Rhode Island College Unity Center, Ray Rickman of Rhode Island Black Heritage and Stages of Freedom, Jim Vincent of the NAACP, and Imam Farid Ansari of the Muslim American Dawah Center of Rhode Island, who has a background as a member of the Nation of Islam. Although these individuals have contributed to this list, the politics of volumes I suggest should not be construed as their own nor should my comments connected to my suggestions be conflated with their views. I would also be remiss if I did not add that, even though I consider myself a white ally, the reality is that any person of color has a better understanding of these issues in their little finger than I might in all my years of research. This is not intended as anything other than polite suggestion.

• Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen (Suggested by Antoinette Gomes)
• Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (Suggested by Antoinette Gomes)
• In the Matter of Color: Race and the American Legal Process: The Colonial Period (Race and the American Legal Process, Volume I)/Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process (Race and the American Legal Process, Volume II) by A. Leon Higginbotham (Suggested by Farid Ansari)
• The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (Suggested by Jim Vincent)
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coate (Suggested by Ray Rickman)- A meditation on race in America.
• March: Book One by John Lewis (Suggested by Ray Rickman)- Congressman Lewis writes about his childhood and the beginning of his work in the Civil Rights Movement.
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X As Told to Alex Haley– This book remains a vital manual for understanding the inherent value of any member of a minority group. Despite the problems in the text caused by Haley’s intentional distortion of Malcolm X’s politics, it is a critical volume.
• A Lie of Reinvention: Correcting Manning Marable’s Malcolm X edited by Jared Ball and Todd Steven Burroughs- When Marable’s biography of the slain leader was published posthumously, the Left in America was stunned by its lunacy. Obsessed with tabloid sexuality issues and trying to say that Malcolm X prefigured the neoliberal Obama administration, it was roundly condemned by everyone who knew the truth. Several rebuttal volumes were published but I would argue this is perhaps the finest. There is a corresponding collection of media files featuring discussions with various Left African American scholars at Prof. Ball’s website.
• The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon– Fanon was lying on his deathbed and dictated the material to his wife as it was written. The book analyzes the decolonization and how oppressed peoples can reorganize their societies. The first chapter, titled On Violence, was a stunning riposte to pacifists.
• Black Skin White Masks by Frantz Fanon– Here the author writes a classic psycho-analytic dissection of racism and how it affects the victims.
• The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois– The book that argued ‘the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line’, something all the more relevant today. Du Bois spared no punches when he fired across the bow of Booker T. Washington and dared people of color to dream of something greater than the lives of vocational workers dictated by the Tuskegee Institute.
• John Brown by W.E.B. Du Bois– John Brown, the abolitionist martyr, was not the first to say Black Lives Matter, but when ‘he captured Harper’s Ferry, with his nineteen men so few/And frightened Old Virginnia till she trembled thru and thru’, the entirety of the United States was rocked so hard it caused a Civil War. I have previously written CounterPunch where I argue this is an essential volume for all white activists to read.
• Race and Racism: An Introduction by Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban- A fantastic volume that explains the intricacies and contradictions of race written by a longtime member of the Rhode Island Black Heritage Society who taught classes on this topic at Rhode Island College.
• Orientalism by Edward Said– A classic dissection of the notion of ‘The Orient’ as an imperialist construct.
• The America in the King Years Trilogy by Taylor Branch- Branch’s epic biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. has some flaws, especially considering his too-close-for-comfort relationship to President Bill Clinton, yet this is essential reading, especially the first volume, Parting the Waters.
• Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion edited by Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank- This volume is a Left-progressive response to the Obama administration. It includes essays from radical African writers to poor white southerners who have been equally marginalized by the neoliberal policies of this president.
• Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire– This volume that argues for a re-definition of how teachers teach and students learn. Our charter school champions in the state and city governments could learn a thing or two from Freire.
• What Gandhi Says: About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage by Norman Finkelstein- Finkelstein is originally a Marxist and advocate for the Palestinians. Yet he turned to Gandhi to develop a manual for the people he loves so dearly and ended up giving us all a gift, dedicating the book to members of Occupy Wall Street. He has no delusions about the Mahatma and is very open about this but also has some stunning insights to share.
• Communists in Harlem During the Depression by Mark Naison- A fantastic case study of liberation politics and a cautionary tale. The Communist Party had some truly brilliant moments, such as their campaign for the Scottsboro Boys, and some truly problematic ones.
• A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey– When you go to another country, you find political parties that have wildly different economic programs. Yet both the American Democratic and Republican Parties rely on identity and social issue politics to win votes. Why? The reason is that both parties subscribe to a brand of economics called neoliberalism, which dictates mass-privatization of public utilities, eradication of the social safety net, and austerity policies. Harvey presents a very readable and vital history of how America got to where we are today economically.
• Here I Stand by Paul Robeson- One-half memoir, one-half manifesto, this testament of the unabashed champion of his people, who faced censure from the McCarthyist mob in the 1950s, is a brilliant short collection of writings.
• Anarchism: From Theory to Practice by Daniel Guérin– A classic pamphlet that explains the basics of libertarian socialism and the history of a communist movement that values liberty in a fashion far more honest than the old Leninist tradition did.
• On Liberty by John Stuart Mill– Whenever one talks about rights and liberty, they consciously or unconsciously are invoking the ideas laid out by Mill.
• A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn– The author was open in his later years he made some mistakes and tried to impose a doctrinaire vision of class on the history of America that had some blind spots, including a gap regarding LGBTQQI people. Yet the book is so beautiful in some parts I still find myself misting up, especially when I read this passage:
  There is no way of measuring the effect of that southern movement on the sensibilities of a whole generation of young black people, or of tracing the process by which some of them became activists and leaders. In Lee County, Georgia, after the events of 1961-1962, a black teenager named James Crawford joined SNCC and began taking black people to the county courthouse to vote. One day, bringing a woman there, he was approached by the deputy registrar. Another SNCC worker took notes on the conversation:
  REGISTRAR: What do you want?
  CRAWFORD: I brought this lady down to register.
  REGISTRAR: (after giving the woman a card to fill out and sending her outside in the hall) Why did you bring this lady down here?
  CRAWFORD: Because she wants to be a first class citizen like y’all.
  REGISTRAR: Who are you to bring people down to register?
  CRAWFORD: It’s my job.
  REGISTRAR: Suppose you get two bullets in your head right now?
  CRAWFORD: I got to die anyhow.
  REGISTRAR: If I don’t do it, I can get somebody else to do it. (No reply)
  REGISTRAR: Are you scared?
  CRAWFORD: No.
  REGISTRAR: Suppose somebody came in that door and shoot you in the back of the head right now. What would you do?
  CRAWFORD: I couldn’t do nothing. If they shoot me in the back of the head there are people coming from all over the world.
  REGISTRAR: What people?
  CRAWFORD: The people I work for.

This list of books is not perfect and I do not pretend to that. I would be a fool not to note that there are almost no titles that deal with feminist issues and almost no women authors. I would in fact love to see Elisha Aldrich or another woman put together that list. But I hope that, armed with a curriculum that will keep these young people busy until spring, the winter will not kill the activist spirit as it did in the case of Occupy Providence. In the era of the charter school and cops who body-slam young women to the schoolhouse floor as if it were wrestle-mania, critical thinking in minority youths is a public enemy and democracy is the real terrorist threat. My hope and the hope of many is they will embrace their potential and create a big-tent movement that embraces labor unions, progressive religious bodies, women’s groups, LGBTQQI liberators, and a radical press to start a peaceful rebellion and win a bloodless class war.

Ms. Cox describes the structural inequities facing trans women of color, including employment opportunities, housing, and health care. Discrimination in the workplace, in healthcare access, and in housing are well-documented by efforts such as the National Center for Transgender Equality’s survey work. However, the multiplicative effects of white supremacy selectively victimize trans women of color.

In 2015 alone, twenty trans women have been murdered. The overwhelming majority of these women were women of color, and in over half of these cases, no charges have been filed. However, it is likely that this statistic is an underestimate. Often, the bodies of murdered trans women are burned or left to decompose, destroying clothing. Autopsy protocols often identify the victim’s gender based upon anatomy. In these cases, the community members must identify the victim as a trans woman.

As Ms. Cox states, “Your life should not be in danger simply for being who you are.” The killing of Deshawnda Sanchez illustrates the pervasive nature of this violence, as she was killed “pounding on (a) door, seeking help”.

The #SayHerName hashtag has created a movement to recognize and mourn the trans women lost to violence. This hashtag serves two purposes – first, it creates space to memorialize the women lost to violence. However, the hashtag also recognizes that many of these women were disrespected even in death, with many media outlets referring to them as “transvestites” or “men in drag”. This hashtag also recognizes a tactic of anti-Black racism, in which irrelevant mugshot photos are used to identify Black victims of violence, serving as a form of character assassination.

Unfortunately, the rampant murder rates facing trans women of color are only one facet of a much larger system of violence.

Trans women face extreme rates of violence in detention facilities run by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, due to the practice of detaining trans women along with men. Pressure from activist groups has led ICE to develop new practices, which will detain individuals based upon gender identity. However, the case of Nicoll Hernández-Polanco has shown that prison guards are often complicit in sexual harassment and assault. Furthermore, detained trans women are still vulnerable to administrative segregation in solitary confinement, which is considered a form of torture.

Furthermore, trans women of color suffer racial profiling by police. Officers profile these women as sex workers. In her memoirs, Sylvia Riviera describes police harassment and detention of these women leading up to the Stonewall Riots. But decades after Stonewall, trans women of color are still profiled and detained. The arrest, detention, and acquittal of Monica Jones has brought attention to modern-day profiling of trans women of color. Monica Jones, a Black trans woman, was arrested under the terms of a Phoenix, AZ “manifesting prostitution” ordinance. Grassroots resistance against the ordinance has centered around the extremely vague language and the substantial degree of individual officer judgement involved with its enforcement.

Finally, as people of conscience, we must engage ourselves in solidarity with trans women of color. We must ensure that the nationwide day of action is not interrupted with news of another murder.

But few residents really care what he thinks these days. The same is true for former Mayor Lazieh, who also “helped” the city along on its path to bankruptcy back in the 1990s, and who has tried to return to the post only to be defeated by James Diossa in 2012, and to the City Council in 2014 – again, defeated by voters presumably unwilling to make the same mistakes made in the past.

What does matter is that three years into his administration Diossa is continuing to bring his home town into the 21st century by celebrating Central Falls’ diversity across the board. And that includes recognizing the place that Central Falls’ gay residents have in this city that still defiantly calls itself “the city with a bright future.”

This is the second year that Diossa has raised the rainbow flag, the symbol of the LGBTQ community since the 1970s. He joins Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza who raised the flag on June 5 to kick off Rhode Island Pride season.

The group that gathered at this flag raising ceremony was small but inclusive – Hispanic, Anglo, African American, current and former residents – and all were openly delighted. There were also representatives from Senator Whitehouse’s office, as well as city officials and employees, and a representative from Governor Raimondo’s office.

This ceremony seemed particularly significant, held on the day before the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in favor of marriage equality across the United States. In his remarks, Diossa talked about the importance of recognizing ALL residents of the city.

“Our LGBTQ community deserves to be recognized with a symbol that is known and flown proudly all over the world,” he said. In speaking to me after the ceremony, he said “I really don’t understand what the big deal is.” For him, the “big deal” is the importance of people loving each other and that it be recognized socially and legally.

There are no statistics on how large the Central Falls gay population is. Doesn’t matter.

What’s important is that, in an age where marriage equality is law across the United States, and more and more Americans now support it, the small city of Central Falls is striking a solid blow that firmly asserts that diversity comes in all forms.

This is almost revolutionary in a city that was once a densely Catholic bastion of conservative social values and dominated by Anglo ethnic groups (French Canadian, Middle Eastern, Polish, and the like) that didn’t even welcome the “invasion” of Hispanics into “their” town.

Mayor Diossa is no stranger to embracing gay rights. In 2013 he joined several other Rhode Island mayors in supporting the legalization of gay marriage here. That support undoubtedly helped the bill pass and become law. Quoted in an article posted on the gay rights organization Human Rights Campaign website , he said “Marriage tells our communities that two people are uniquely committed to one another – that they are a family.”

What is interesting is that Central Falls is now predominantly Hispanic at 65.7%, an ethnic group not historically noted for its support of gay rights. That appears to be changing. A recent Pew Center study found that Hispanics have joined the ranks of supporters of marriage equality at 56%.

This is possibly the result of millennials (age 18-34) now being counted as a force to be reckoned with, likely undercutting traditional social conservative values of their elders. Or it’s possible that Hispanics, who are experiencing ethnic backlash in several states such as Arizona and Texas, even as their political clout has grown, realize it’s time to join with other minorities and support their battles.

An article on the Pew Center website discusses how Hispanic values are changing, thanks to fluctuating religious identities and experiences.

However, that doesn’t mean that Central Falls Hispanics would look kindly upon gay rights. Well aware that raising the flag might offend this predominantly Hispanic city, Diossa, who is of Colombian heritage, cares only that the city recognizes diversity, saying that Central Falls has always been a “gateway city,” where immigrants and minorities can create new lives, and that celebrating gay rights is simply one more way to celebrate the city’s residents.

He made a point of referencing opponents – “Despite the open and loving arms of Central Falls residents, there are still some who whose acceptance of our neighbors is limited.”

Some former and current residents are delighted. Central Falls native and current Riverside resident Ricky Gagnon was glad to hear about the flag raising, saying in a Facebook post “Very cool that my old hood is catching up to being trendy like me.” Central Falls resident Kelly F, declining to give her full name, was at the ceremony and thrilled to see it happen. She said, “This means that maybe my wife and I will finally be fully accepted in my hometown.”

Others of an older, predominantly Anglo, generation mourn the loss of morals in a city slipping out of their control. A woman who lives in one of the two public senior and disabled housing complexes was heard to say that this definitely would not have happened if Moreau or the former City Council was still around. Or any of the other perennial Central Falls politicos. Another called the whole affair “sick.”

It can’t be easy to be on the losing side of social progress, of course, or the wrong side of history. The sky is certainly falling for those who dig in their heels and cry for ‘the good old days’ when men were men, women knew their place, and gays were considered morally corrupt.

Those days are disappearing in the rear view mirror, and rainbows are the order of the day in Central Falls. And as a resident of this small but fierce urban survivor, I couldn’t be more proud.

Lin Collette is a Central Falls resident and a Progressive Charlestown contributor. Her original article appears HERE.

“Each year we are inching closer to full legislative equality. But legislative equality does not equal acceptance and it does not equal security. With the constant attacks around women’s rights, Transgender rights, racial disparity, HIV criminalization, immigrant’s rights, income inequality, poverty and homelessness, we need to wake up to the fact that marriage equality, while important, is in some respects just the shiny object that the government is dangling in front of us while leading us off the edge of a cliff.

“This is not our end game. It never has been.

“The term IndiVISIBLE was meant in part as a shout-out to the SCOTUS case, because when one hears the word ‘IndiVISIBLE’ one typically thinks of the phrase that follows it, ‘with liberty and justice for all.’

“But the teem IndiVISIBLE was also suggested to remind that without equal attention paid to all these other issues that affect us, without a shift of focus beyond marriage rights and onto a broader queer convergence movement, we really have nothing.”

Maselli’s words were just the beginning. He then introduced Josh Kilby, who began his talk with “Happy pride, comrades!” Kilby talked about the gains made in recent years by the LGBTQ community in terms of military service (unless you are Trans) but pointed out that the community “fought this battle without questioning the utter devastation the U.S. Empire causes around the world.”

The new frontier of the Queer rights movement, said Kilby, is that, “We stand in unconditional solidarity with ‘Black Lives Matter,’ for unrestricted, free abortion on demand and without apology, for free access to Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis to anyone who feels they need it and without judgement, and most importantly, we do not tolerate racism, sexism, transphobia in our community at all.”

R. (Ronald) Lewis, poet and performer, then delivered a blistering broadside, that has to be heard to be experienced. Lewis goes after capitalism, which, “commodifies the unconquerable” and he goes after the sanitized history of the Stonewall Riot, pointing out that Stonewall is now a place that celebrates “Gay” liberation without mention of, as Rachel Simon says in her piece, “Sylvia Riviera and Marsha P. Johnson, two trans women of color who were the first to resist arrest on the fateful night.”

When I first arrived at Pride, Anthony Maselli told me that I should be at the stage at 4:30, because he was part of a plan to “radicalize Pride.” It’s this next bit that stirred to crowd to wild cheers, and outraged protest. When Maselli said, “It’s time for us to dispel the bitter myth that we, (the queer community) are all men, all wealthy, and all white, because that is not the majority of who we are,” a man in the crowd shouted, without apparent irony, “That’s a lie! You don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“We are under attack,” said Maselli, “by the religious, cultural, economic and political right that targets LGBTQ people, women’s economic, reproductive and sexual freedoms, and is organized around a racalized notion of national culture. A religious freedom framework is being deployed to undermine all civil rights laws.”

Maselli asks, “Rhode Island has marriage, now where do we go from here?” and answers, “We are queering living wages, access to health care and transgender justice. Queering total immigration reform and ending incarceration. We are queering feminism, queering the way we talk about race, queering HIV activism, queering heteronormative ideas of marriage and couplehood, queerly engaging in radical protest, getting old queerly. We need to create a movement that says not only, ‘We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it’ but one that says “Join us, dream with us, dare with us, go for broke, and change the world.’

“What if IndiVISIBLE was more than just a word printed on a tee shirt, what if this was our queer vision for what we do next?”

[Note: About half of the photos above were taken and selected by Katherine Ahlquist]