A Statement from BCGEU's Executive Vice-President and Chair of the 2SLGBTQIA+ Committee Tristen Wybou

“No pride for some of us without liberation for all of us” ~ Marsha P. Johnson 

When you think Americana, you probably don’t think of the Stonewall Inn – the gay bar in Manhattan’s Greenwich village that was raided by police on this day in 1969, famously catalyzing a multi-day resistance to state-led violence that marked what most today consider the first Pride.

As the spark plug for what early gay rights activist Stormé DeLarverie called an uprising and an act of civil rights disobedience, Stonewall epitomized the fight for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," itself. But like so many popular demonstrations, Stonewall never fit neatly into the cultural imaginary that divisive politicians and corporations continue to sell as “western democracy” to fit their selfish needs. This is not unlike the cultural imaginary President Trump has stooped to appeal to in his anti-immigrant policies, or in his reactive deployment of the National Guard to quell anti-ICE protests in California.

For years, the real story of Stonewall — a rally-cry for equity in a working class neighbourhood — was stymied. A combination of limited media coverage and a narrative heavily controlled by the perpetrators of the violence that made the protest necessary, paved the way for Stonewall to be dismissed as a riot. Laden with homophobic rhetoric, a story was forged that painted a picture of unruly youth causing mayhem, rather than a community fighting for the right to exist, to live and to love to their fullest, and to work gainfully without discrimination.

In more recent years, another form of dangerous revision has creeped into the storytelling, where the trans women of color, such as Marsha P Johnson, who played a leading role in the Stonewall uprising, are getting scrubbed from the historical record. Erasure is violence, and it’s an extension of the larger attack on trans rights that’s unfolding in both the United States and here in Canada. These attacks — the rise in vitriol and the misinformation—have left trans workers fighting for their very right to exist, and the very principle of universal healthcare highly vulnerable.

With this in mind, to commemorate the Stonewall Uprising, we recommit to honouring all voices that were on the frontlines and exposing how this important story has been manipulated to erase, demonize and criminalize everyday people. And we commit to interrogating any exclusionary story of national identity that relies on using marginalized people as wedges — whether that’s trans people or immigrants. Just as we condemn the idea that anti-SOGI crusades protect children, we condemn the idea that security is won by tearing families apart and displacing people from communities where they’re woven themselves into the social and economic fabric of that place.