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As a child of the ’80s and a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community, every June I get a bit nostalgic. I get to observe my LGBTQ+ friends and broader network be a bit more themselves and unabashedly queer. And they do this, consciously or unconsciously, because it’s Pride Month and rainbows are popping up everywhere, from our workplaces to our banks to our FYPs and newsfeeds.
I realize now this nostalgia comes from being a closeted teenager growing up in central Florida, hoping to one day (as RuPaul says) “find my tribe” and connect with my LGBTQ+ chosen family. But twenty years ago, it was much more difficult to understand what this “family” would look like. I didn’t have access to seeing myself, and others like me, represented as loudly and proudly as we are today. And the representation I did have was frankly questionable.
But all that’s changed. Youth today beginning the process—and yes, it is a process—of discovering their gender identity and sexual orientation are far more equipped with terminology and resources to help them. Thanks to tiny computers in the palms of their hands, most have access to different forms of media to teach them words like transgender, nonbinary and gender-nonconforming—helping them unpack what they’re experiencing in their bodies.
So when I see or attend a community Pride event, be it big and flashy or in a small town, I can’t help but get nostalgic and feel very grateful and proud. And while the access LGBTQ+ youth have today is rewarding for many reasons, it’s not without consequences.
Now that LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. are more visible, we are also being targeted by far-right extremists, wielding a decades-old playbook that has been used to attack this community and spread disinformation about us since before the 1969 Stonewall uprising. Except now, this playbook is stronger than ever—ironically due to many of the same online tools that give LGBTQ+ teens the resources they need.
To be clear, these threats are disproportionately affecting our transgender community members and LGBTQ+ youth in need of access to gender-affirming care. A decade after Time declared a “Transgender Tipping Point” in a landmark cover story profiling Laverne Cox that sent shockwaves across the media world, trans people are both more visible and more vulnerable. Today, trans people are being scapegoated by local leaders across the U.S. and defamed by many media outlets daily. And in some states, the art form of drag—which is similarly more mainstream thanks to the unprecedented success of RuPaul’s Drag Race—is being used to roll back the rights of trans people.
