Our local LGBTQ Pride celebrations were held virtually yesterday (and will continue all this week). There was a car parade that wound through 15 miles of neighborhoods.

I think this was more wonderful than the one-mile circuit they do every year on foot around a downtown park because it was more VISIBLE. Even though it’s a public park, it’s downtown, you do have to travel to see it. That means if people don’t want to see it, they don’t come. In the car parade there was a bigger “we’re here, we’re queer” vibe.

Check out Come OUT with PRIDE‘s other videos and be sure to BE VISIBLE.

I think it’s more important now with threats to several hard-won rights that we point out that LGBTQ exist in every aspect of life. We deserve the right to fulfill our own “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” definitions. Having guaranteed equal protection before the law in where we live, where we work, and who we choose to form families, homes, and relationships with is crucial to that.

I’m angry that two SC jurists decided that opponents of same-sex marriage being called “bigots” is a “material damage” and want to force the court to reconsider the verdict in Obergefell. For those not in the know, Obergefell found that there was material damage to the lack of marital rights (and property rights granted by marriage) when a woman’s wife died. So Obergefell granted that all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, have the right to marriage (and all its 1134 assumed rights and protections). Alito and Thomas wrote marriage should “never have been extended” to LGBTQ citizens in the United States.

In short here’s my reply: “Go ahead and be a bigot, but ruling after ruling has already shown that the first amendment doesn’t give you the right to say and gain protection from non-material consequences. Name-calling is a non-material consequence. If people decide you’re a bigot and that they won’t associate with you (or your business), that’s them exercising their first amendment right, too.”

I certainly hope the legal response to Thomas and Alito’s letter is “there’s no standing” (in addition to there’s no case to actually consider the issue again).

A paid plaintiffs tactic to “get a case together quickly” is also a travesty of justice (just like paying “supporters” to come to your White House lawn appearance, by the way). But I won’t go there, because this post has become long enough already.

People are trying to make sure ACB isn’t confirmed so the SCourt is not shifted so hard right for several generations, but you can more immediately turn the tide, by making sure that these attacks on individuals’ rights ceases on January 20, 2021. Send the orange one and his ass-kissing cronies packing. Vote!