This is a hard statement to write. As we all sit here doom scrolling through social media, clicking through stories from the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and nationwide abortion support networks about where to receive abortion care in a post-Roe world, we’re overtaken with fear.
We fear for our trans brothers, sisters, and nonbinary siblings with uteruses, who face discrimination in health care every day. We fear for the queer youth, who aren’t out to their parents or who don’t have a support system. We fear for survivors of rape and survivors of abuse. We fear for our LGBTQIA2S+ community members of color, who will likely face the brunt of the negative impacts of this decision made mostly by white people.
We can’t help but recognize how unreal this moment actually feels, and how serious and harmful the consequences are going to be. Our community’s trust in the Supreme Court has been degraded for quite some time, given the innumerable anti-poor, anti-black, anti-LGBTQ opinions that have been decided over the course of many decades. But now we know without a sliver of doubt that this justice system was never built for us, and certainly not built to protect us.
The overturning of Roe means many things to many people, but as an LGBTQIA2S+ organization, our focus is on what this means for our community and our people. What this means for our trans brothers and sisters, nonbinary siblings with uteruses, queer youth, survivors, and queer community members of color. The intersection of abortion rights and queer liberation has never been lost on us, but now it’s at the forefront of our call to action.
Yes, we live in a state that doesn’t have a trigger law waiting to ban abortion, but that doesn’t mean our fight ends there. Our community needs us, especially as pride month comes to an end. We need to fight to protect our abortion rights in Washington state. We need to fight for comprehensive sex education in our schools. For accessible birth control. For gender affirming care. For black lives. Wenatchee Pride and our supporters have power in this community, and we will use it.
