Alfred Walking Bull

This week in northern Nevada, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community comes together to celebrate Pride Week. Pride is an important event in the community and has its roots in the Stonewall Riots of 1969, a series of riots that began after the New York City police raided a gay bar, the Stonewall Inn. For most in the community, it’s a historic event worthy of praise, veneration and celebration. 

For others within the community—myself included—the riots serve as a constant reminder and inspiration to never stay on the sidelines when it comes to political action and LGBT activism and to stay on the path set before us. That path has led us to this point in American politics where we’re able to even discuss the possibility of marriage equality for lesbians and gays as well as legal protections and anti-discrimination laws for the transgender community.  

In Nevada, beginning on October 1, lesbian and gay couples (along with our heterosexual brothers and sisters) are legally able to register as domestic partners. But that step toward equality wasn’t taken alone, thanks to the efforts of progressive legislators in the Senate like David Parks—who introduced the bill—and all of our strong, Democratic Washoe legislators Sen. Bernice Mathews, Assembly members Bernie Anderson, David Bobzien, Sheila Leslie and Debbie Smith who voted for that step closer to equality and political allies like Nevada Women’s Lobby, PLAN and the ACLU.  

But those allies also had help from local activists like Pamela and Angela Brooks, David Gordon, Jill Switzer and Paul Cain among other Nevadans who testified before the Senate and Assembly committees during the bill’s hearing phase. Our activists also had integral support from individuals like Lauren Scott of Equality Nevada and David White with Day of Decision for organizing rallies and their supporter bases to further the cause of equality with the Domestic Partnerships bill. 

These LGBT activists are shining examples of what can be done a state level for taking steps closer to marriage equality at all levels of activism. The challenge now is to supplement those activists by four or five times the amount of volunteers who can be activated to show their support for legislation, which can lead to more victories for the community in the future.  

Despite our victories here and around the country—or maybe even because of them—the LGBT community as a whole is on the brink of complacency. With each victory, we leave the table with a settlement of equality and we tell ourselves that will do. The challenge is to continue coming back to the table with our voting bloc, financial support and volunteerism to prove that we’re serious about equality on all levels. But that takes a staggering amount of work and it can foster despair. The actuality is that any civil rights struggle is constantly fraught with its ups and downs, sometimes, more downs than ups.  

As an activist, it’s disheartening to hear from friends within the LGBT community about how they’re “just not political.” As a Native American, I’ve seen first hand how not being political adversely affects a community; it dampens the fire and spirit of activism and creates a sense of hopelessness and complacency. In the LGBT community, with so many of our basic rights—the right to work, the right to housing and the right to marry to name a few—being a simple function of legislation, it’s hard not to see the connection and ignore that the personal truly is political. 

As Pride Week continues here in Reno, this offers us the opportunity to start work for our own equality—and for our brothers and sisters in their own struggles like health care—and be able to be proud of the results yet to come.