Contact: Chelsey Engel, cengel@usw.org, (412) 562-1178
United Steelworkers (USW) Vice President Fred Redmond and the USW LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee released the following statement in honor of Pride Month:
“Fifty summers ago, the first-ever Pride March took place in New York City on June 28, 1970, on the one-year anniversary of the monumental Stonewall Riots. That moment in Greenwich Village in 1969 remains relevant and poignant today.
“Right now, as many of our communities express collective outrage over the many interwoven injustices brought further into the light, it is important to reflect on what happened on that heated night at the Stonewall Inn and on the nights that followed. We must remember the suffering and pain that precipitated the uprising and what rights the action eventually helped to win.
“But it is just as important to realize that the struggle for equality for LGBTQ+ people in America did not end with a march in 1970. Black trans women in 2020 have an average expected lifespan of 35 years. Workers in more than half of U.S. states can still be fired from their jobs simply for their sexual orientation or gender identity. We must continue the fight to right these and far too many other wrongs until this nation is truly just and free for all.
“To do that, all people must come together to do the hard work of dismantling systems and beliefs that embolden homophobia, transphobia, and other hate-based ideologies, that divide workers for the sake of maintaining the status quo.
“The labor movement has always said that an injustice to one is an injustice to all; let us use this month, and every month onward, to live up to that acclamation and deepen our commitment to the liberation of all working people.”
The USW represents 850,000 working people employed in metals, mining, pulp and paper, rubber, chemicals, glass, auto supply and the energy-producing industries, along with a growing number of workers in public sector and service occupations.