June 14 marks a turning point in the history of Chicago’s LGBTQ rights movement—one worth remembering in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting at a gay club in Orlando, the worst mass shooting in American history.
According to historian John D’Emilio’s account of the protest, demonstrators carried signs that read “Anita is McCarthy in drag,”—a reference to Communist scaremonger Joseph McCarthy—and “God drinks wine, not orange juice.”
Progress always provokes backlash. Sometimes that backlash is vicious and violent, as in the case of the 1978 assassination of Harvey Milk, who had emerged as a national political figure by leading California’s resistance to the Bryant campaign. Sometimes it’s unimaginably tragic, as in Orlando this week. The struggle for justice—the struggle against hate—is unending, but relentless. It will not and it must not end.
