Trying Times, but Hardly “Unprecedented”

By D.W., Proud Queer Community Elder

March 2020. A time filled with anxiety and uncertainty as our global society has been forced to recognize a fresh threat — a threat that has turned our daily lives upside down and will likely have an impact on how we live our lives for years to come.

And as with any new crisis there are new terms and phrases that become part of our everyday vocabulary — Social distancing, Pandemic, Self-isolation — words that dictate how we must now conduct ourselves.

However, the word I keep hearing that strikes the biggest chord with me is: “Unprecedented”.

Is it though?

According to many media reports, the last major global pandemic was the 1918 Spanish flu, which resulted in the deaths of between 20 and 50 million people worldwide. Presumably there are few people left who remember that time.

However, to many of us within Queer Communities, these times are hardly “Unprecedented”: they are reminiscent.
AIDS has, to date, killed approximately 32 million people globally. Of course, we recognize that AIDS was never limited to the Queer Communities, but we were hit hard, and at a time when the general society was inclined to ignore the devastation because, well, we were Queer.

So, what does this have to do with Pride? More than many people know.

Ask almost anyone about the origins of the Pride movement, and they’ll reference The Stonewall Riots, and the fight for basic human rights, acceptance, and inclusion. Ask what Pride represents today and answers might include a celebration of our achievements and of our communities, and the ongoing battle for those of us who continue to endure marginalization in society.

But rarely do I hear reference to the “Evolution” of the Pride Movement.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, Pride quickly, through necessity, evolved from a fight for basic human rights to include a fight for health care. As quickly as any pandemic moves from rumour to reality, AIDS was upon us before we even knew what it was. In the early days, neither governments nor the public seemed to care. So, we took it upon ourselves to protest for support and demand answers, all the while working to keep each other alive.

And that is when the Pride Movement became what it would be for the decades that followed. There are two arms of Pride: the one focused on the critical need for exposure through parades, festivals, events, community outreach and engagement, and the other, considerably less visible, arm which operates behind the scenes on a more intimate and individual level. In today’s world we have thousands of agencies working on Queer issues from multiple directions, but at the start of the AIDS crisis, resources were scarce, so concerned community members just did what had to be done.

And through our community activism, we saved more lives than we lost!

We need to remind ourselves of our past efforts and those immense successes —especially now, as many within our communities face challenges similar to what they endured in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

There are community members who are afraid to leave their houses for basic provisions. We have people with compromised immune systems who need help getting safely to their doctor’s appointments, getting their blood work done, and keeping their supply of meds up to date. There continues to be a disproportionate number of Queer people within the homeless community, and as society retreats, they need more help than ever. And so many folx who are forced to endure ongoing marginalization, through no fault of their own, that may be impacted even further during this current crisis.

However, the Queer Communities, more so than most, are capable, organized, and familiar with how to care for each other in uncertain times. Because we have done this before. And we will do it again.

The historical adversities that we have faced have built resilience and strength, and a sense of community of which we should all be proud. The time has come for the Queer Communities to be the leaders in showing the world how all communities must support their most vulnerable.

There is uncertainty right now, and we’re living each day as it comes, preparing ourselves as best we can. Across the country some Pride celebrations have been cancelled, some postponed, some up in the air as we navigate on a “wait and see” basis. Pride may be different in 2020 than we expected, and that is beyond our control. But hopefully we all remember there are myriad ways that community support can be demonstrated, and we will step up and do our best to provide for each other.

For 2020 please carefully reflect on how you have celebrated Pride in the past and consider other ways you can provide for our Queer Communities in this current climate.

• donate to frontline organizations if you are financially capable of doing so
• while maintaining safety at all time, help organize delivery of food, meds and other necessities
• support friends and community members online, especially those with compromised immune systems and our Community Elders, those in potentially isolated or unsafe situations, or those facing financial hardship

There are so many ways we can help.

We are in this together, as we have been all along, and we will continue to set an example for the larger society of how all humans can, and should, support one another.

There is as much Pride in that as there is in the more traditional forms of celebrating this powerful movement, and the wonderfully diverse communities that I am so very proud to be a part of.

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