The LGBTQ+ community continued to show immense support for the fight in equality at the 40th annual Pride festival in Phoenix early November.
Phoenix Pride, founded in 1981, helps educate and promotes unity amongst the LGBTQ+ community while continuously celebrating diversity.
“Phoenix Pride envisions a unified community where diverse individuals are celebrated and able to thrive as their authentic selves,” stated on the Phoenix Pride website.
The Human Rights Campaign is one advocacy organization that attended the festival. Its main goal “is to ensure that all LGBTQ+ people, and particularly those of us who are trans, people of color and HIV+, are treated as full and equal citizens within our movement, across our country and around the world.”
Right now, there are no laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity that bar access to housing, education, transportation and other public amenities in 29 states.
According to The Human Rights Campaign, “This discrimination prevents the full participation of LGBTQ+ people in society and disrupts the free flow of commerce.”
But the Equality Act aims to change that.
If passed, ensured protection from discrimination against members of the the LGBTQ+ community will allow people to have a better quality of life without constant fear being denied necessities.
This law would amend the nearly 60-year old Civil Rights Act established in 1964. So far it’s passed the house vote, and now is awaiting a Senate decision.
“It would allow people to go about their daily lives without fear of being completely shut out from society,” campaigner Brody Jackson said, who raised over $350 for the Human Rights Campaign on the first day of the Pride Festival, exceeding the daily goal.
“It kind of puts us in a situation to sort of be second-class citizens,” Jackson said. “We’re not fully equal under the law…That’s exactly what we’re pushing for.”
Jackson said that as a queer person, inequality is apparent in his everyday life. He worries that his future mathematics career won’t be a compatible choice because he fears rejection from coworkers.
But this kind of concern isn’t out of the blue.
In the middle of the pandemic, Jackson’s mom told him that he and his transgender girlfriend needed to leave the house. With nowhere to go, the couple had a difficult time finding housing and jobs.
Mark Rivard, 60, has attended the Pride festivals since his early 20’s. Rivard attracted the attention of every attendee, shouting his own tagline: “Happy Pride! God loves you and made you intentionally. Have a good time, you’re beautiful.”
While Rivard lost friends in the LGBTQ+ community to AIDS in his early 30’s, he explained he does not listen to those who are against the community because he has created “a relationship with the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”
Rivard recalled that at early Pride festivals, many conservative Christian people lined the streets on the opposite side, telling them they were all “going to hell.”
He says even more so now, it’s important to understand that every human being was made intentionally and perfectly.
“The American spirit demands people to be respected for exactly the way they are, it doesn’t matter their sexual orientation, gender identity, their religious choice, anything and everything,” Rivard said. ”God made everyone and we are stronger the more we embrace our differences.”
Festival goers say the 40-year mark of Phoenix Pride is significant because it symbolizes the community’s fortitude for equality and representation, something other cities and organizations haven’t been able to achieve due to lack of support.
“You’re definitely not alone in today’s day and age, communication is easier than it ever has been,” Jackson said. “There are support networks even if your immediate family and friends are not exactly allies, you can reach out to people. You will be heard and you will be loved.”
Contact the reporter at araraiza@asu.edu
