In Honor of Pride and Juneteenth
Dear Brooklyn College colleagues,
Today is June 17, 2020. Monday handed us some excellent news for the first time in a while. The Supreme Court ruled that workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity violates federal law. This decision extends these federal protections to LGBTQ+ employees across the country for the first time. On NPR yesterday, Brooklyn College Professor of Political Science and Endowed Chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program Paisley Currah noted, “It’s just the decision we’ve all been wishing for because it’s so clear; it’s so strong.” Since June is Pride month, the decision is especially sweet.
In celebration of Pride, I’d like to highlight a just few LGBTQ+ award winners in the Brooklyn College community. Professor Rosamond S. King won the 2017 Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry for Rock|Salt|Stone. Brooklyn College alum De’Shawn Charles Winslow won the Center for Fiction 2019 First Novel Prize for In West Mills. Brooklyn College alum Ocean Vuong won a 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, as well as the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize and the 2016 Whiting Award for Night Sky with Exit Wounds.
Brooklyn College alum Victoria Cruz is a legendary figure in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. She took part in the Stonewall riots and the first Gay Pride march. The 2017 documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson focuses on Cruz’s work to fight violence against transgender women. She was the first trans woman of color to receive the National Crime Victim Service Award from the U.S. Department of Justice. To quote Cruz, “The transgender experience isn’t new. It’s as old as the human experience, and anyone who does their research would know this. I think society needs to be educated, and maybe after being educated, empathy will follow.”
This Friday is Juneteenth, which commemorates the date in 1865 when Union soldiers arrived in Texas with news that the Civil War had ended and that enslaved people were free. To honor this moment in history, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced today that this Friday will be a paid holiday for state employees. This Juneteenth, I encourage us to reflect on Cruz’s invocation of education and empathy––as well as the work we must still do together to advance justice.
Yours sincerely,
Michelle J. Anderson
President, Brooklyn College
