Love is a Riot: a statement on what is happening at Stonewall by member leader Kyndra White

I am a proud transgender OHSU employee.

I am a proud transgender AFSCME Local 328 member.

And I am a transgender union member whose safety and healthcare are protected because labor fought for it.

So when the Pride flag is taken down at Stonewall National Monument, this is not “just politics.”

This is a labor issue.

When I was fired for being transgender and starting my transition. I was a drag performer. I found a home, safety, love, family, and myself at the Stonewall Inn. That space saved me. So when the Pride flag is removed, it feels personal. It feels like someone is trying to say we were never there. That we don’t belong. That our fight didn’t matter.

Stonewall was not led by CEOs. It was led by working-class queer and trans people — people who were criminalized, fired, and pushed out of jobs simply for existing. The fight for LGBTQ+ dignity has always been tied to the fight for economic survival.

When symbols of our existence are erased, it signals something bigger: who is considered worthy of protection — and who is not.

And unions should be paying very close attention.

But it did matter. And it still does.

Because the same forces trying to erase queer and trans people are the forces that attack collective bargaining, gut workplace protections, defund public services, and silence dissent. They start with the most vulnerable to test the ground. If we don’t push back, they move on to the rest of labor.

This is about power.

If a government can decide which identities are acceptable in public spaces, it can decide which workers are acceptable in workplaces. If they can strip recognition from our history, they can strip protections from our contracts.

Unions exist to protect workers — all workers. That means standing up when any group of workers is targeted. Especially when those workers are already marginalized.

Our union contract protects my gender-affirming care. That didn’t happen because someone in power was generous. It happened because labor demanded it.

If we stay silent while LGBTQ+ rights are chipped away, we weaken the very foundation of solidarity that unions are built on.

Solidarity is not selective.

An injury to one is an injury to all.

When labor stands up for queer and trans workers, we are not being “political.” We are defending the core principle of unionism: that every worker deserves dignity, safety, and protection.

If we don’t defend that at Stonewall, where will we defend it?

Unions must stand up now — because this fight is about more than a flag.

It’s about whether working people get to exist, safely and openly, at work and in public life.

And labor has never won anything by staying quiet.