🏳️‍🌈 It’s June 1st. Pride Month begins. In 1976, as the United States marked its bicentennial with fireworks and fanfare, a very different kind of declaration was being made right here in San Diego. This photo captures a marcher at the 1976 San Diego Pride Parade holding a handmade sign that read: “200 Years of Freedom for Whom?” The sign was more than a question—it was a protest. That year, Pride organizers had implemented a ban on political signs, citing a desire to avoid controversy. But for many in our community, simply being queer was (and is still) political. For others—especially queer people of color, poor and working-class queers, trans people, sex workers, and disabled activists—survival was political. The U.S. may have been celebrating 200 years of independence, but queer and trans people were still fighting for safety, recognition, healthcare, housing, and basic dignity. And for many, the rights being celebrated were never extended to them in the first place. So this sign was carried in defiance. In truth. In deep love for queer futures. At Lambda Archives, we return to this image every year—not as a relic of the past, but as a mirror. ➤ Who is Pride for? ➤ What are we celebrating? ➤ What are we willing to remember—and what are we being told to forget? The radical roots of Pride are not just in NYC. They are here, too—in San Diego streets, in resistance to assimilation, in the refusal to sanitize our history for mainstream comfort. Featured Image: Marcher carries a banner challenging the Bicentennial, 1976. Gary Gulley Collection (P109.007), Lambda Archives of San Diego. #PrideMonth #QueerHistoryMatters #SanDiegoPride #LGBTQArchives #PrideWasAProtest #200YearsOfFreedomForWhom #LambdaArchives (fb)

“La Voz Latina” was a periodic segment featured in local LGBTQ+ publication, the Gay and Lesbian Times, with content available in both English and Spanish. The purpose of La Voz Latina was to provide updates, information, and share stories impacting local LGBTQ+ Latinx communities. In the write-up featured here, the authors used their platform to shine a light on ICE raids taking place throughout San Diego County: “San Diego County has recently been experiencing an unusually high amount of raids by the US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. People have been taken away by force, parents have been separated from children, families have been split up, and fear has been spread from one side of the county to the other.” The article goes on to share information on what steps should be taken if local community members are approached by ICE, and the article ended with this message: “We oppose the inhumane way ICE is conducting the raids, and the racial profiling of Latinos has to stop. Know your rights; protect yourself and your loved ones” Featured Image: Ramos, Carolina, and Agustin Orozco. “La Voz Latina.” Gay and Lesbian Times, no. 1011, 10 May 2007, p. 48. (fb)