It’s a beautiful thing, progress. It feels like settling into a comfortable chair. The hard-won rights, the growing visibility, the sense that the world is finally, slowly, opening its arms. The sharp edges of past pain begin to blur. But here’s the thing about comfort—it can make you forget. And forgetting is a luxury we simply can’t afford.
It’s dangerously easy to forget that our freedom was bought with blood, sweat, and righteous rage. Generations before us didn’t just fight for rights; they fought for their lives. They were arrested, institutionalized, brutalized, and murdered for who they were. For many across the globe, that nightmare is still a daily reality.
The Echoes of History in Today’s Headlines
Think the past is in the past? Think again. The very same rhetoric once used to demonize our community is being recycled and blasted across headlines today. Philosopher George Santayana’s famous warning has never felt more urgent:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
This isn’t just a philosophical exercise. The proof is in the political battlefield. In a move that sent shockwaves through the community, the Human Rights Campaign declared a national state of emergency for LGBTQ+ people in the U.S. in 2023 for the first time ever. As HRC President Kelley Robinson stated, “The multiplying threats facing millions in our community are not just perceived—they are real, tangible and dangerous.”
According to the ACLU’s legislative tracker, more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced across the United States in 2024 alone, targeting everything from healthcare for trans youth to what books can be on library shelves. It’s the same old playbook: erase our stories, legislate our lives, and push us back into the shadows.
Remembering as an Act of Resistance
This is why remembering is no longer a passive activity—it’s an act of defiance. Our history is a survival guide, a blueprint for resilience. We must remember the Stonewall Uprising, not as a distant event, but as proof that a handful of fed-up individuals can spark a revolution.
We must remember the heroes of ACT UP, who stared down a government that let a plague decimate a generation and screamed back with the defiant truth: “Silence = Death.” Their fight for visibility and medical justice laid the groundwork for so much of today’s activism. They taught us that being loud, disruptive, and demanding is not just an option; it’s a necessity when your life is on the line.
Today, that spirit lives on. It lives in the activists fighting discriminatory laws, in the creators on platforms like TikTok and Instagram who share daily doses of queer history, and in every person who chooses to live their truth openly and proudly. They are the keepers of the flame.
We Will Not Forget
Forgetting the fear of the closet, the cruelty of being a punchline, or the agony of being deemed “disposable” isn’t just a disservice to those who came before us—it’s a betrayal of our future. We are standing on the ground they gained for us, and we can feel it shaking.
The fight is far from over. But our strength is in our memory. It’s in knowing the depths of the darkness we’ve faced and the incredible power we have when we stand together. We owe it to our elders, to ourselves, and to the generations yet to come to hold this history close.
“We must remember the rage, the resilience, the revolution. Because if we forget, we will lose the ground we’ve gained. So no—we will not forget. Not now. Not ever.”
