Community members gathered at Daley Plaza to launch Pride Month Monday, as Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson joined with Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, County Board Commissioner Kevin Morrison, and other elected officials for the fifth annual raising of the Progress Pride flag.
The mayor highlighted the Chicago Stars Pride Flag’s display for a second consecutive year.
“Chicago is a bright spot in the Midwest for inclusivity,” he said. He went on to note that the city recently joined a multi-city lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s administration’s “attempt to coerce the city into agreeing to anti-gender identity conditions in order to receive grants.”
“Whether you threaten us with resources or anything else, we will not allow our liberties to be captured by tyranny,” Johnson said.
Commissioner Maggie Trevor, the first out lesbian on the County Board, condemned recent violence against trans people and said federal policies that claim to protect women are being used to target trans rights.
“The assault we see on trans people is an affront to all of us. It threatens women’s rights, it threatens civil rights, it threatens all of us,” she said before leading the chant: “I am proud. I will not go back.”
Edgewater resident Christopher Nehlsen, 34, and his boyfriend, Markus Pitchford, 35, attended the event and said Chicago’s local leaders gave them hope.
“I feel like I need to fight more than I fought before,” Nehlsen said. “Especially as a white person, for my brothers and sisters of color.”
Pitchford acknowledged that Chicago can be a safe haven for LGBTQ+ community members, at a time when some areas of the country may not offer the same support.
Illinois is among 14 states and Washington, D.C. with laws shielding gender-affirming care, making it a safe haven for displaced trans people in the Midwest. Illinois law also prohibits discrimination based on gender identity by health care providers and requires state-regulated insurance plans to cover hormone therapy.
But the political climate surrounding LGBTQ+ rights has his friends rattled. Earlier this year, lawmakers in at least nine states introduced bills calling for the overturn of Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that requires states to recognize same-sex marriage. And Trump has signed executive orders rolling back trans people’s ability to travel, play sports and serve in the military.
“I have friends who are leaving Washington, D.C.,” Pitchford said, adding that they no longer feel that local officials there are “standing strong against the rollbacks from the Trump administration.”
Preckwinkle acknowledged the decades of LGBTQ+ activism that eventually led to statewide bans on conversion therapy and the early legalization of same-sex marriage in Illinois.
“All of this progress didn’t happen overnight,” she said. “And it didn’t happen by accident.”
Precious Brady-Davis, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago commissioner and the first Black trans woman to hold public office in Cook County, reflected on the work of key LGBTQ+ leaders Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera.
“We are commemorating a riot. In 1969, two brave trans women, Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, said that we will never go back into the shadows of history,” Brady-Davis said. “Let us be clear, in this moment, as the Trump administration tries to legislate us out of history, we will not go back. Our history is written in forward progress.”
Contributing: Violet Miller