Grand Rapids, MI – While the Grand Rapids Pride committee was pausing festivities for the afternoon due to nearly triple-digit temperatures on Sunday, June 22, over 100 community members marched with cold compresses and face misting water bottles through the Festival to nearby Rosa Parks Circle, demanding “No war with Iran.”

New Orleans, LA – On the evening of June 14, around 30 community members and organizers gathered outside of Louis Armstrong Park to protest Shell Oil’s Pride sponsorship and march ahead of the New Orleans Pride parade.

“If Shell gets to roll through our streets with a police escort, then we are going to march. You don’t get to attack us and expect us to play nice,” said Molly Frayle from the Queer and Trans Community Action Project (QTCAP).

Tallahassee, FL- Tallahassee SDS hosted its annual pride talent show at The Bark on June 12. Members of the community were encouraged to share their talents in celebration of Tallahassee’s diverse queer community.

Queer community members came together to show solidarity in a state where the LGBTQ community has been increasingly under attack by the state government’s Republican supermajority. Several bills have been passed and signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis, including bans on gender-affirming care, removals of classes deemed “woke” due to the inclusion of LGBTQ history, and restrictions on the discussion of LGBTQ identities in the classrooms.

Pride month this year starts with Trump attacking the LGBTQ community every chance he gets. No matter how desperate and unbearable the attacks from reactionaries become, we must remember that our resistance and history is greater than anything the Trump Administration or any other enemy can throw at us. Pride month is a reminder of our courageous history, of our struggle to win our democratic rights.

Mandeville, LA – On Saturday, June 7, over 1000 protestors gathered in Mandeville to celebrate the second annual Northshore Pride. The streets were closed along the Mandeville Lakefront for the determined protesters to march carrying signs and flags in 100-degree temperatures. Supportive crowds from diverse Northshore communities lined the route, creating a buffer between the marchers and small groups of Christian-fundamentalist counter-protesters.

Seattle, WA – On Saturday, May 24, Seattle’s LGBTQ community and their allies protested an anti-queer, Christian evangelist rally at the Capitol Hill neighborhood’s Cal Anderson Park. They protested the rally that was called by the group Mayday USA, which aims to classify transgender people as mentally ill and to legally define life as starting at conception.

Although the Seattle community outnumbered the reactionaries, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) wasted no time in acting as the reactionaries’ personal armed guard.

Appleton, WI – Hundreds of workers, queer activists and community members flooded Houdini Plaza in Appleton, Wisconsin, on May 1, International Workers Day, kicking off a march that would face police repression before triumphantly returning to cheers of public support.

Tallahassee, FL – On Saturday, April 19, Students for a Democratic Society held their Queer Rave fundraiser at The Bark. The event had been in the works for a couple of months, but after the mass shooting at Florida State University on April 17, SDS members were unsure of how to move forward. On that tragic Thursday, two non-students – Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba – were killed and six others were wounded by the shooter.

The April 5 demonstrations across the country saw hundreds of thousa