06/01/2026
Happy Pride Month! 🏳️🌈✨
June is here, and there is so much to celebrate about the beauty, resilience, and joy of our collective community. But as we look at the flags and celebrations, we cannot ignore the heavy reality outside. We cannot celebrate Pride without acknowledging that our rights are being actively stripped away every single day—particularly those of our trans community.
Let’s be entirely clear: There is no LGBTQIA+ without the T. Trans individuals have always been at the absolute forefront of collective q***r history. We do not have the rights we hold today without the trans women of color who stood up and fought when the stakes were highest. We (hopefully) all know Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvie Rivera, so today we are going to highlight some other trans activists doing the hard work!
Cece McDonald
Cece McDonald is an activist who was assaulted in an anti-trans, anti-black hate crime in 2012 and was subsequently imprisoned for defending herself. She was forced to serve her 41-month sentence in a male prison. Since then, she has sought to unveil the structural violence and discrimination imposed on trans women of color.
LaSaia Wade
LaSaia Wade co-founded the Tennessee Trans Journey Project, a community-led funding initiative founded in 2012 to support grassroots, trans justice groups run by and for trans people. In 2016, Wade and a small group of other Black trans individuals launched the Black TGNC (trans, gender non-conforming) Collective.
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention has issued Red Flag Alerts for the United States, explicitly warning that the escalating wave of anti-trans legislation, bathroom bans, and the criminalization of healthcare indicates we are in the early to middle stages of a genocidal process against trans people. Pride started as a riot. Today, it remains a fight for survival. We must look beyond the celebration and commit to real action, mutual aid, and unyielding defense of our trans family. Protect trans lives. Protect our community. ✊🏼✊🏾🏳️⚧️
