In a powerful speech at the Human Rights Campaign's gala, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker condemned efforts by the Trump administration to undermine LGBTQ+ rights. He emphasized the necessity of standing up for marginalized communities, particularly transgender individuals, in the face of authoritarian threats. Pritzker critiqued both Republican opposition and the shifting support from some Democrats, reaffirming the importance of defending basic rights and the historically significant struggles of the LGBTQ+ rights movement. His call to action highlighted the need for solidarity and resilience against ongoing challenges in civil rights.
The Trump administration and his Republican lackeys in Congress are looking to reverse every single victory this community has won over the last 50 years. And right now it's drag queens reading books and transgender people serving in the military. Tomorrow, it's your marriage license and your job they want to take. Bending to the whims of a bully will not end his cruelty. It will only embolden him. The response to authoritarianism isn't acquiescence. Bullies respond to one thing, and one thing only, a punch in the face.
And in the midst of this existential fight, this battle that seems to consume everything, well, let's not take the soul-sucking path of sacrificing the most persecuted for that which we deem to be most popular. I know that there are transgender children right now looking out at this world and wondering if anyone is going to stand up for them and for their simple right to exist. Well, I am. We are. We will.
Pritzker also offered some history of the LGBTQ+ rights movement, starting with the Society for Human Rights in Chicago in the 1920s - a group that was quickly quashed - and going on to the Mattachine Society, founded by Harry Hay in California in the 1950s.
Harry said that he was first told about the Chicago group as a warning that the idea was too dangerous and nobody should try to start a similar group again.
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