Hello Oakland GMC Community,

As we are sure most of you are aware, there has been a wave of attacks against our community on multiple levels. We have seen legislation such as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill from Florida working to silence and marginalize us. We have seen and heard far right extremists demonize trans individuals and drag performers. And most recently we have seen the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe V. Wade, eliminating federal standards on abortion access. 

The threat does not seek to stop there. The words of Justice Clarence Thomas were “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents”.  Griswold v. Connecticut is access to contraceptives without government restriction.  Lawrence v. Texas is sodomy. Obergefell v. Hodges is same-sex marriage.  These are their spoken judicial plans and do not include the many local and state homophobic/transphobic/misogynistic laws and rulings to come.

In this dark and threatening time, we MUST stand together like never before.  We HAVE to have solidarity with each other, we HAVE to fight in each other’s struggles, and we HAVE to do all that we can to win. We must also take care of each other and love each other. There will be some victories, however there will also be many losses. We must brace for that as we move forward. We REFUSE to lose our rights that have been granted to us and we MUST fight to remind this country and ourselves that we deserve and demand equal rights, respect, and love.

Thank you so much for reading this. Remember, though the fight ahead of us will be long and arduous we must do what we can to support each other. We are all we’ve got.

From the Board of Directors of the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus.

Photo Credit: Martha Asencio-Rhine / Tampa Bay Times via AP