June 2024 Update

ID: "June Monthly Update www.freedomoklahoma.org/news” with our logo and a background image the Freedom Oklahoma staff wearing masks

our movement, our work, must be not about equality, but about liberation.

We’re often reminded of how imperfectly we do this work, the work of Freedom Oklahoma. In ways that challenge and frustrate us, in ways that connect us, in ways that allow us to innovate. And, we have decided that despite the limitations of doing this work within the capitalism of the nonprofit industrial complex, under the watchful gaze of the government who bestows on us nonprofit status while at the same time exacerbating the need for the work we do, we do this work firmly in our values. It means, we may not agree with every funder, every policymaker whose proposal is critical harm reduction, every coalition partner, and we’re never going to let those relationships silence our advocacy or in a way that requires compromise on behalf of members of our community. It means that we’ll try to address and repair harm, we’ll acknowledge that no movement is easy or cohesive or in agreement all (and sometimes even most) of the time, and we’ll recenter and refocus as much as is needed (a theme of this Gemini season it seems) on what, why, and how we are working as an organization.

So, as we shift into Pride month, a community still grieving (or maybe beginning to start to grieve) the loss of Nex Benedict, as we exist in an ongoing pandemic without appropriate support for mitigation from any level of government (for not the first time), as a genocide continues against the Palestinian people, as genocide escalates in Sudan, Congo, and Tigray, as trans people and immigrants continue to be the targets of increasing harm as candidates use fear and hate to try to compel voters in 2024 elections, the only way to ground ourselves is in the reminder that our movement, our work, must be not about equality, but about liberation.

I think a lot about what became a tenent of the ACT UP movement, united in anger. And, while there is power in harnessing anger, rage, and grief, it must be accompanied by work to unite us in our hope. Our work requires some dismantling of institutions, of beliefs, of harms, but it requires just as much, if not more, freedom dreaming, future building, and investment in the world we want to live in, where we all have the safety to thrive. And that’s work that cannot happen alone.

As we mark a new pride month, I think back on the evolution of pride events. I think of Sylvia Rivera, at the end of her life, saying that queer folks had made ourselves so small at pride, to make room for capitalism to accommodate the comfort of straight folks, that there wasn't space for her, for trans people anymore. I hold that with me in this work. Each day, as I do it, I ask myself who we do this work for, and who is left out. I know we'll always do movement building imperfectly, such is the nature of being human. It's a necessary struggle, to build the table, to reimagine together, because this work, this movement, this pride, is something we do together. It's part of why we expanded our mission beyond equality. Because we believe in more than being equal to cis straight white people, of having the same power of them within systems that demand subjugation, harm and marginalization of people. This is liberation work. And that's the spirit we are carrying into June. This month may not be rainbow and joy for you, for a lot of us. But we hope it is about community. About restoring your hope, alongside those who share your vision for a future where all 2SLGBTQ+ people have the safety to thrive. About a future where we’re all free, about liberation.

In solidarity and with hope,

Nicole McAfee (they/she)

Executive Director