June 2025 Update
ID: a collage of different forms of protest and art. in the center it reads “june monthly update” below that is the news section of the website “freedomoklahoma.org/news"
The Next Brick: Pride is a Commitment, Not a Pageant
As we stand at the threshold of Pride Month, the air is thick with a familiar tension. There’s the glitter, the music, the promise of celebration. But Pride is so much more than a party. Its also a time to educate and be educated, to organize. It's a time to further the fight against institutions that keep us from accessing life beyond this month. Pride is a time that acknowledges the profound disillusionment many of us feel trying to find joy in the midst of genocide. Pride is so much more than a party..
This past weekend, a stark reminder of this dissonance shook our community. Pride on 39th, meant to be a sanctuary, called the cops on a Dyke March OKC for showing up in a way they didn't agree with. During Pride. Let that sink in. Pride, born from the raw fury of a riot against police brutality and corruption, a riot that centered Black and Brown trans folks and our fight for survival against a system that often leads to our deaths, decided to invite the very force it was founded to resist.
Marsha P. Johnson, and the 'P' doesn't stand for Party, or for Police. It stands for fundamental, unwavering truth: our liberation is bound to our collective safety, and safety from the police state we are all living under…if you can call it living. I asked the team what are their thoughts on “Pride” were.
The words of our Executive Director, Cole (They/She) echo a sentiment many of us carry: "Where... where do the quiet gays... go?" For our autistic and disabled kin, for those whose bodies can’t withstand the sensory overwhelm or the brutal heat, the traditional Pride parade often feels less like a celebration and more like an endurance test. A question Cole asks, "What is the balance between joy as an act of resistance, and joy at the expense of resistance?" When so many of us are struggling to simply make ends meet, to survive, the spectacle of corporate-sponsored Pride feels like gross negligence. This month is not a pageant, but a commitment. Whether we’re throwing them or stacking them, we build movements and change brick by brick. That is the only kind of Pride I want to be at. Its complicated and messy and there is so much to hold, because we want to celebrate our joy and feel our love. And we want an end to the Transgenocide that Oklahoma is enacting and a stop genocides around the world that our tax dollars fund.
Our Director of Operations, Organizing, and Support, Solas’s (He/Him) unfiltered honesty cuts to the core: "Pride is the capitalization of love. A love that they suffocate year round. That is hated and frowned upon. But in June they want us to be their…vacation. Their escape from the chains of society. For a party, for a pretty penny, for a good time. At the expense of our lives and freedom." He reminds us that the commodification of Pride often serves as an excuse for those who remain silent while our lives are under attack. "Pride is for straight people so they can feel better about their silence all year while we have been erased. So make sure to scream real loud at that parade. Even though your screams won’t bring us back from the dead."
Corporate Pride has co-opted what we can and do build together everyday.
Solas also paints a beautiful, tender portrait of what Pride truly means: "Pride is the running hug from a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Pride is seeking recovery over self harm. Pride is self acceptance, self exploration, self love. Pride is rest, pride is love, pride is community. Pride is exhaustion but going anyways. Pride is knowing they will say no you can’t, and still find a way to say you can. Pride is being enough here and now. Pride is continuing to fight, to not settle, to demand more, to be louder, bolder, more daring. Pride is having nothing to lose because they took it all from us already, so we are rebuilding it our way." This is the Pride we are fighting for: one that is boundless, free of police, there is shelter & food. One where we have our needs met.
Pride is limitless, because we are limitless.
Our Programs Intern E, (They/It/Mirror Pronouns) makes poignant observations solidifying this bitter truth: "Pride is ten dollars for parking and twenty for entry… pride is a march: the banners feature familiar faces from your bills and junk mail. Banks, cell phone carriers, insurance companies… pride is bar crawls and block parties. It is sponsored by White Claw, Jack Daniel’s, Bud Light. Pride is approved by the board, the city, the police. It is 'by the people [whom we benefit from association with].'" And simply put, "Pride is no ramp to the entrance, and stairs IF you get through the door."
We are living through a time of unprecedented attacks on our bodily autonomy, on our very existence. To have a Pride on 39th, in a time of active genocide against our trans siblings, call the cops on fellow queer organizers is not just a misstep; it is a profound betrayal of everything Pride stands for. Calling the cops during Pride, or any fucking time, is you saying you’re willing to sacrifice whoever you are calling them on, and yourself. We see this as we watch folks from citizens to undocumented folks & everyone in between be deported. As we watch famine and genocide ravage places like Sudan, Congo, and Gaza - the deaths of Stavian Rodriguez, Bennie Edwards, Terrance Crutcher and countless others.
Because Cops Don’t Care and They Don’t Prevent Harm.
It's okay to not be okay right now. It's okay to feel the rage, the exhaustion, the pain. In fact, it is essential that we are brutally honest about these feelings. We need to be honest with each other about a Pride that, in the midst of a genocide, calls the cops on dykes. That is Anti-Pride.
We are here to love each other radically, passionately, and messily. But never, ever to cause each other harm like asking the police to step into a space that should be protected from them, especially given its legacy and the dangerous times we are living in.
This June, as we reflect on Pride let us remember Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Storme DeLarverie, countless others, and the fight for liberation. Let us reclaim Pride as a space for genuine community, for curiosity and conversation, for direct action, for fighting the liberation of ALL our people, and for building true safety for all 2SLGBTQIA+ folks. Let us remember that our joy is an act of resistance, but never at the expense of our collective struggle for liberation. We will continue to fight, brick by brick, until Pride truly means freedom for all of us.
With hope, solidarity, and action,
Mauree Turner (they/them) - Director of Digital Organizing & Communications
Cole McAfee (they/she) - Executive Director
Solas Evans (he/him) - Director of Operations, Organizing, and Support
E (they/it/mirror pronouns) - Programs Intern
Important Links and updates:
Give Out Day
This #GiveOutDay we're raising money to continue to grow Freedom Oklahoma in the next decade. Non-profit funding is under attack, and for every $100 awarded by U.S. Foundations, only 25 cents specifically supports 2SLGBTQ+ communities, and of that, only 3 cents focuses on trans communities. As an organization led and staffed by 2STGNC+ folks, we know the realities of this funding gap too well. Help invest in the future where all 2STGNC+ folks have the safety to thrive, across Oklahoma and everywhere we call home.
Pen pal Group!
Did y'all know you can still sign up for our youth and young adult pen pal program? Don't believe us? Click the button below to register and be paired with like-minded queer youth!
Submit a Workshop Proposal
Are you ready for another TFS conference?!
The Freedom Sessions Conference's theme this year is "Seeds of Liberation" with the intent to continue building on past themes of Allyship in Action and Safety to Thrive. The conference will be Saturday, September 6th, 2025 on Zoom.
We know that building the Oklahoma we deserve is going to take all of us. While our goal is collective liberation and unity in the collective struggle, we must work, learn, and share together to make the world we wish to see. Do you have a workshop that fits this year's theme? Fill out the workshop proposal form by July 15th!
June Educator & Caregiver Community Groups
Join us for our June Community Groups! We'll be chatting about upcoming community events, Pride season, and how we can best support you during the Summer break.
Full Schedule:
Educators, Teachers, & School Staff: Tue, June 10th, 4:00 - 5:00 pm
Parents, Guardians, & Caregivers: Wed, June 11th, 4:30 - 5:30 pm
June Student Group
Oklahoma youth, join us June 15 to chat, get community updates, get support, or anything else you might want! We hope to see you there.