Breaking news and special issues are probably the two biggest headaches for the PGN staff. This past week, we had a lot of both — but their confluence is a welcome stress.
We have long been planning to produce a double special issue this week — our coverage of this weekend’s Annual Reminder Day anniversary celebration, running simultaneously with our second-annual Special Section on LGBTQ Older Adults. What better way to mark the work of our earliest pioneers than with a section written by and for LGBTQ older adults — the people who have, for decades, fought for our right to be a community, yet who are often ignored by that same community?
As this edition approached, another possibility began taking shape: The U.S. Supreme Court was expected to rule in late June on national marriage equality, with many pundits predicting a June 26 decision. Lucky for us, our photographer was slated to be in Washington, D.C., that day to receive a national photography award. Timeliness ultimately won out, with our photographer able to capture the historic moments outside the SCOTUS building.
That all of these events converged in this one issue is serendipitous, to say the least.
In planning for this edition, we were eager to pay tribute to the pioneers who weathered seemingly insurmountable obstacles to make a better future for our community. We wanted to highlight what America in 1965 looked like to convey just how daring their demonstrating was, let alone their commitment to simply publicly identifying as LGBT people. And we hoped to illustrate how those first steps those pioneers took, as they marched outside of Independence Hall, put us on a journey toward the creation of today’s modern LGBT community.
Those aims were immeasurably strengthened by the SCOTUS ruling.
In just about a 50-year span, our community went from demonstrating outside Independence Hall for basic respect for LGBT people to rallying outside that same spot in celebration of nationwide marriage equality. In those five decades, our community’s issues have been championed in the streets, in courtrooms, in the media, in legislative chambers, in homes and in countless other spaces. But all of the progress we’ve seen — and the unprecedented pace of that progress in the past decade — could not have been possible without our earliest champions.
So we thank our pioneers — from the Reminder Day marchers to all LGBT people who weathered inequality and injustice. Every person who strove for the right to embrace his or her identity has helped move our community toward the history-making place we find ourselves in today.