Proud to be queer? Thank a riot.

The Cooper Do-nuts Riot. The. Compton’s Cafeteria Riot. The Stonewall Riots. The Black Cat Tavern Protests. The White Night Riots. Act Up. Patch Riots. The Julius Sip-In. The Dyke March. The Dewey’s Lunch Counter Sit-Ins. The Annual Reminders.

You can’t talk about Pride without talking about the history of queer protest.

Our movement was built on the foundation of civil disobedience and disruptive protest against police brutality. It’s foundational to our movement. It’s who we are as a community.

The freedom you enjoy today as a queer person was fought and built for you by queers who broke windows, set trash cans on fire, damaged property, overturned police cars, took hits from police, were bruised, were bloodied, got knocked to the ground, got back up again and fought.

Who was often leading the fight? Black queer people. Queer people of color. Trans people. Homeless queer youth. The most at risk were the ones up front, throwing fists and bricks at injustice and police violence.

Your Pride doesn’t mean shit if it doesn’t honor our history of protest. Your Pride doesn’t mean shit if it excludes a desire to protect black bodies, brown bodies, trans bodies. Your Pride doesn’t mean shit if it values property over human life.

Love is love. But love has fucking limits. Love hits its wall when that wall is a line of police officers in military gear. Love only gets you so far. And we didn’t get to where we are by love alone.

it took fists. It took blood. It took fire. It took rage.

You proud to be queer? Thank a riot.

Anything else betrays who we are.