World Satisfaction is coming to Washington, D.C., this summer time — the primary time the worldwide occasion will happen in the US in eight years.
For a lot of, this ought to be a second of celebration — a worldwide gathering of LGBTQ+ individuals, taking on the nation’s capital to acknowledge our pleasure and collective energy. And but, the lead-up to this historic occasion has already been stained by political gamesmanship, silencing, and erasure.
Simply this previous week, the Kennedy Heart canceled per week of LGBTQ+ occasions that have been deliberate as a part of the World Satisfaction festivities. In response to CNN, the choice comes amid “a shift in priorities” and new Trump-aligned management on the storied establishment. If we’re being sincere, this isn’t only a programming resolution; it’s a warning.
It’s additionally a reminder; we live in a second the place pleasure is political. And in 2025, our very survival nonetheless will depend on resistance.
Make no mistake; Donald Trump and his allies have by no means been mates of LGBTQ+ individuals. From the second he took workplace in 2017, the Trump administration labored aggressively to roll again civil rights protections, appoint anti-LGBTQ+ judges, ban transgender individuals from serving brazenly within the army, and weaponize non secular freedom to legalize discrimination.
He erased us from federal web sites, eliminated knowledge assortment on LGBTQ+ communities, and allowed businesses to disclaim us companies. Whereas his 2024 marketing campaign might have appeared quieter on queer points, that silence was strategic — not an indication of progress.
Hurt continues to be taking place in actual time, notably by the relentless assaults on gender-affirming care, trans youth, and LGBTQ+ visibility in colleges. Extremists now not want Trump to shout from the rooftops when his agenda is already being carried out in statehouses, faculty boards, and courtrooms throughout the nation.
And now, he’s been elected Board Chair of the Kennedy Heart — a cultural cornerstone that has traditionally honored the very artists, thinkers, and changemakers his insurance policies undermine. This resolution isn’t only a slap within the face; it’s a symptom of one thing deeper: a nationwide failure to see LGBTQ+ individuals — particularly Black, brown, trans, and disabled of us — as important to the American cultural and political cloth.
Let’s be clear: this isn’t nearly World Satisfaction. It’s about what World Satisfaction represents. Satisfaction started as resistance, not rainbow capitalism or company floats, however rise up.
It was Black and brown trans ladies like Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera who pushed again in opposition to police violence at Stonewall. It was ACT UP, Queer Nation, and different grassroots organizers who refused to let our neighborhood die in silence through the AIDS disaster. It’s the ongoing work of queer and trans youth who’re combating immediately for the precise to stay, study, and thrive in security.
World Satisfaction ought to be an extension of that legacy — not only a occasion, however a platform. Not simply celebration, however survival.
In my current article for NewsOne, I wrote that “D.C. will not be a backdrop.” And I stand by that. The District is not only a stage for federal pageantry or political theater; it’s residence. It’s a metropolis the place Black and brown LGBTQ+ individuals have organized, cherished, constructed households, and reworked methods. From the ballroom neighborhood to advocacy teams to Black queer-led protests at Nellie’s Sports activities Bar, this metropolis has at all times been greater than its monuments.
That’s what makes this second each painful and important. For a lot of, the choice to attend World Satisfaction is much from easy. It requires assessing threat in a local weather that feels more and more hostile — a fragile stability of pleasure and worry. Nobody ought to really feel compelled to attend or pressured to remain away. As a substitute, that call ought to be rooted in private company and collective care.
However additionally it is necessary to not enable white supremacists, transphobes, or cultural revisionists to push us out of our personal communities.
That is our residence, too. And Satisfaction continues to be protest.
The cancellations on the Kennedy Heart, the quiet normalization of Trump’s political return, and the rise of state-sanctioned anti-LGBTQ+ violence — all of it’s related. These aren’t remoted moments; they’re coordinated methods to erase us, divide us, and exhaust us.
Our response should be simply as coordinated. We should manage not simply to guard our rights, however to develop them. We should inform the reality about our historical past — not simply the sanitized tales, however the radical, intersectional ones that honor Black trans ladies, disabled queer of us, undocumented LGBTQ+ migrants, and intercourse staff.
We should present up for each other — in protest, in celebration, and within the messy, sophisticated areas in between.
World Satisfaction is occurring in Trump’s yard, nevertheless it’s additionally taking place in ours. That stress doesn’t need to be reconciled; it must be acknowledged. Satisfaction will not be about efficiency. It’s about presence.
So whether or not you march, rally, train, relaxation, or resist in different methods — do it from a spot of affection. Do it as a result of we’re nonetheless right here. Do it as a result of we nonetheless have work to do. And do it as a result of the world is watching, and our message should be clear:
We aren’t equipment to another person’s narrative. We aren’t going anyplace. And that is nonetheless our residence.
Preston Mitchum is the founding father of PDM Consulting, based mostly in Washington, DC. His work focuses on racial justice, gender fairness, LGBTQ+ liberation, and the pursuit of insurance policies that transfer past symbolism to create lasting change.
SEE ALSO:
DC Is Not a Prop: On Respect, Resistance, and Duty
Right here Are The States Suing Trump Over Anti-DEI Agenda
Satisfaction Is Nonetheless Protest: World Satisfaction In The Period Of Trump 2.0
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