It’s that time of year again when we see our community engage in what we do best when engaging in social activism.
AIDS Walk is right around the corner on April 28, and this will be the 30th year of walking. If you haven’t formed a team or started a fundraising page yet, it’s not too late. You can learn more at www.aidswalkkansascity.org.
PrideFest will follow about a month later, on June 1-3. Area organizations and businesses will have tables, making this event a great chance to learn more about how you can get involved. This year, PrideFest is bringing back the Youth Royalty Court, and they already have an outstanding roster of entertainment including Thelma Houston, the Grammy-winning disco, soul and R&B singer.
The Kansas City Center for Inclusion will have their LGBTQIA Leadership Forum on April 18. It’s a great chance to plan community events and learn more about the various community organizations.
And near the end of March, we saw perhaps 6,000 people in Kansas City standing up for gun control and millions more around the world doing the same. We are featuring extra photos from the Kansas City event, simply because it was so powerful. As I watched, it was heartbreaking to hear the speeches, poetry and more from high school students who should be more worried about graduation than being gunned down.
The important thing about the marches is that they were led by students who are sick and tired of adults doing nothing but sending thoughts and prayers. As the students have indicated, it’s time for action.
The student-led marches reminded many of us older folks about the student activism during the Vietnam War, when students protested the war at colleges around the country. As with current students who do not want to live in fear of gunmen attacking schools or colleges, the Vietnam-era college students did not wish to be drafted into what many viewed as a senseless war, where they could also die.
Many young adults were also part of the civil rights marches.
The Gay Liberation Movement that stemmed from the Stonewall riots and led to Gay Pride festivals and parades of celebration also began with college student protests.
When the time came for the community to stand together during the early days of AIDS, when the government was doing nothing, it was groups like ACT Up that led “die-ins,” similar to the “lie-ins” that the young people of the gun control movement have done in front of the White House and other locations.
It’s been inspirational to see the young people so engaged in the effort to get our lawmakers to finally create sensible gun control legislation.
Speaking of activism, Kristi Parker, a Kansas pioneer in LGBT publishing, passed away at age 49 in March. She was the founding publisher of the LGBT magazine Liberty Press, based in Wichita.
Our paths never crossed, but as a fellow publisher, I admired Parker’s dedication to Liberty Press and to offering a voice for Kansans since 1994. Her magazine’s motto was “We were gay before it was cool.”
Her activism was well-known in the Wichita community, where she was involved in the early days of their Pride festivals. Her magazine had features from people who are familiar to many of us in Kansas City, including columns by activists such as Stephanie Mott and Robert Minor.
We know Kristi Parker will be missed, and we salute her dedication to the community through her work.