‘Pride Is More Than a Parade’ Says Human Rights Campaign

The Human Rights Campaign has kicked off Pride Month with a powerful video calling for LGBTQ+ people and allies to “fight back with Pride.”

In the clip, actresses Sheryl Lee Ralph and Alexandra Billings tell viewers that the march toward racial, queer, and reproductive justice is not over.

“Just because you have rights today does not mean that you will have rights tomorrow,” Lee Ralph says in the video.

Billings emphasizes that Pride emerged from protests.

“You come from a family of revolution,” she says. “That is the foundation from which you were born. You literally come from human beings who not only know how to picket, we know how to win.”

HRC president Kelley Robinson reminds viewers of the intersectional fight at play during Pride month. She says that HRC is fighting for trans, racial, and reproductive justice and against anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and white supremacy.

“This Pride month is about centering our defiant joy. Despite those who are trying to silence us, to push us back into the closet, to erase us under the law, we march and dance in the streets in celebration of one another and of our community,” Robinson said in a statement to The Advocate.

She added that there is a coordinated, funded attack on the transgender community that is pushing misinformation across the country and has led to more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills being introduced in state legislatures.

Robinson also called out corporations that have caved to right-wing, anti-LGBTQ+ pressure.

“This is a moment of crisis for our community and our country. But with crisis always comes reckoning,” Robinson said. “And with reckoning comes the opportunity for bold and transformative change. Together, we will get to a world where we are free and liberated—without exception.”

Watch the video below.