World Satisfaction is coming to Washington, D.C., this summer time — the primary time the worldwide occasion will happen in america in eight years.
For a lot of, this must be a second of celebration — a worldwide gathering of LGBTQ+ folks, taking up 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 Middle canceled per week of LGBTQ+ occasions that had been deliberate as a part of the World Satisfaction festivities. In accordance with CNN, the choice comes amid “a shift in priorities” and new Trump-aligned management on the storied establishment. If we’re being trustworthy, 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 depends upon resistance.
Make no mistake; Donald Trump and his allies have by no means been associates of LGBTQ+ folks. 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 folks from serving overtly within the army, and weaponize spiritual freedom to legalize discrimination.
He erased us from federal web sites, eliminated knowledge assortment on LGBTQ+ communities, and allowed businesses to disclaim us providers. 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 via the relentless assaults on gender-affirming care, trans youth, and LGBTQ+ visibility in colleges. Extremists 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 Middle — 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+ folks — particularly Black, brown, trans, and disabled of us — as important to the American cultural and political material.
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 insurrection.
It was Black and brown trans girls 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 group die in silence in the course of the AIDS disaster. It’s the ongoing work of queer and trans youth who’re combating at this time for the appropriate to stay, be taught, and thrive in security.
World Satisfaction must 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. shouldn’t be a backdrop.” And I stand by that. The District isn’t just a stage for federal pageantry or political theater; it’s house. It’s a metropolis the place Black and brown LGBTQ+ folks have organized, cherished, constructed households, and remodeled programs. From the ballroom group to advocacy teams to Black queer-led protests at Nellie’s Sports activities Bar, this metropolis has all the time been greater than its monuments.
That’s what makes this second each painful and significant. For a lot of, the choice to attend World Satisfaction is way from easy. It requires assessing danger in a local weather that feels more and more hostile — a fragile steadiness of pleasure and worry. Nobody ought to really feel pressured to attend or pressured to remain away. As a substitute, that call must be rooted in private company and collective care.
However additionally it is vital to not permit white supremacists, transphobes, or cultural revisionists to push us out of our personal communities.
That is our house, too. And Satisfaction continues to be protest.
The cancellations on the Kennedy Middle, the quiet normalization of Trump’s political return, and the rise of state-sanctioned anti-LGBTQ+ violence — all of it’s related. These will not be remoted moments; they’re coordinated methods to erase us, divide us, and exhaust us.
Our response have to be simply as coordinated. We should set up 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 girls, 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, difficult areas in between.
World Satisfaction is going on in Trump’s yard, but it surely’s additionally taking place in ours. That rigidity doesn’t must be reconciled; it needs to be acknowledged. Satisfaction shouldn’t 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 have to be clear:
We aren’t equipment to another person’s narrative. We aren’t going anyplace. And that is nonetheless our house.
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 Accountability
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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