June is Pride Month because it commemorates the 1969 Stonewall Riots in Greenwich Village. On June 28, 1969, the NYPD raided The Stonewall Inn where gays and lesbians were known to gather. Why not raid the place, arrest people, and drag them out into the street?
Oh crap! They’re fighting back!!! The Stonewall Riots are called the Stonewall Riots, because there were six days of riots — LGBTQ folks fighting back! Yay!
MVP has been an ally in this fight since I founded the PAC.
When Franni and I held a party for close friends in February 2007 to tell them that I was going to announce that I was running for the Senate, one of our guests, an LGBTQ leader in Minneapolis said to me, “Don’t come out for marriage equality. You’ll lose.”
“There’s one problem,” I told him. “I’m for marriage equality.”
A few days later, I was the first major party statewide candidate in Minnesota history to announce my support for marriage equality. It caused a minor kerfuffle. When I say minor, I mean minor. It was a one-day news cycle kerfuffle, and then it was over.
We thought the Supreme Court’s decision on Obergefell settled marriage equality. Of course, after Dobbs, Clarence Thomas said he wanted to revisit Obergefell. Christ!
So, we still have a fight on our hands. Because we still have a lot of hate. Especially for transgender folk. When I hosted the “Daily Show” in March, I asked drag queen BenDeLaCreme to be one of my guests to discuss this new move in various states to ban drag shows. DeLa is not transgender, but many of her colleagues are and she spoke of the importance of the art form to the LGBTQ community.
At Midwest Values PAC, we only support candidates who support the LGBTQ community.
Al
P.S. At MVP, we are proud of our early vocal support of the LGBTQ community. I hope you can help us support these folks and the politicians, officeholders, and community leaders who back them.
P.P.S. You can watch my interview with DeLa here.
