Pride is not just a parade — it’s a fight for survival

Opinion

This weekend, when you think of Pride, spare a moment to think about Kady Grass.

Just two weeks ago, the 19-year-old was beaten severely by five men as she left the bathroom of a McDonald’s restaurant in a suburb outside Chicago with her 13-year-old niece. Witnesses and closed-circuit video cameras confirmed that the attackers used homophobic taunts and insults right before the attack.

Grass was beaten unconscious and suffered a broken nose. Two of the men who attacked her — one 19, one 16 — have been charged with a variety of offences including one count of perpetrating a hate crime.

“They attacked me because I like women,” Grass said in a social media post. “All I did was exist that day. I went to go spend time with my family, and then, I was brutally attacked. There was nothing I did to deserve that.”

The key statement is Grass’ acknowledgement that she was attacked simply because she existed. That is something we all need to keep in mind as we enter the final weekend of Pride festivities here in Manitoba because, in case you hadn’t heard, the very existence of LGBTTQ+ people here, across Canada, all over North America and across the world is under attack.

In 2023, even as the incidence of overall violent crime was going down, Statistics Canada reported that hate crimes against LGBTTQ+ people had gone up 70 per cent. It’s not just a blip; since 2016, hate crimes targeting sexual orientation have gone up by nearly 400 per cent.

In the United States, the situation is similar in some ways, worse in others. The 2023 National Crime Victimization Survey found that LGBTTQ+ people were five times more likely to be a victim of violence than non-LGBTTQ+ people, and nine times more likely to be the victim of a hate crime.

It’s also not just a North American phenomenon. Violent hate crimes and the legal persecution of LGBTTQ+ people is a growing, global phenomenon. Just about every entity that tracks these incidents believes only half of all attacks are reported to authorities.

Human Dignity Trust, a U.K.-based organization that advocates for legal protections for LGBTTQ+ all over the world, said 65 countries consider same-sex relationships to be illegal, 12 of those countries allow the death penalty as the maximum sentence. Of those that consider it illegal, 41 countries have criminalized “private, consensual sexual activity between women.”

Why the spike in hate and violence directed at LGBTTQ+ people? It’s complicated but not impossible to discern.

Compassion and empathy have been in short supply since the worst, early days of the pandemic. That, in turn, has helped ignite a global rise in far-right populism which holds, as one of its core principles, the desire to suppress, possibly erase, the existence of LGBTTQ+ people.

It’s not bleak everywhere in the world. In fact, while attacks on LGBTTQ+ people are escalating in Canada, this country can still claim a place on the forefront of this critical human rights issue.

It’s visible in gestures such as Manitoba’s NDP government holding what very well could be the first Pride drag show inside a provincial legislative building. Three drag queens performed in the rotunda outside the legislative chamber to a raucous crowd of Pride supporters Thursday. “This is the people’s building,” Premier Wab Kinew told those in attendance. “I hope you always feel welcome here.”

Tributes should also be extended to Canada’s federal government. Love in a Dangerous Time, a poignant exhibit about the threats faced by Canada’s LGBTTQ+ community that was created for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, was transported to Canada’s breathtaking embassy in Washington, D.C.

Taking this exhibit to Washington — ground zero in an aggressive anti-LGBTTQ+ campaign by the Trump administration — is a pretty courageous act by Ottawa. The exhibit will be in the embassy, which has a panoramic view of the U.S. Capitol buildings, until August 29.

In a more perfect world, gestures such as this would not necessarily be required. But in this day and age, Pride celebrations are still essential largely because the world has become a harder and more dangerous place for LGBTTQ+ people.

It would be easy to see Pride just as another cultural event, disconnected from any serious societal issues. In reality, the origins of “Pride” can be found in violent attacks and persecution on the LGBTTQ+ community in the U.S.

Pride has always been framed as a celebration, and with good reason. But in its earliest days, it was a courageous act of defiance against the legal and political systems that endorsed unmitigated violence and persecution.

So, this weekend, it would be a great gesture if we all paid tribute to the origins of Pride, while keeping in mind the reason it exists.

Most non-LGBTTQ+ people, when they hear the term “Pride,” will almost automatically think “parade.”

When you hear the word “Pride” this year, think “survival.”

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca