And the Beat Goes on: Reflections on 2025 Pride Through the Lens of AIDS Activism

From mourning to movement to joy, Pride is more than celebration — it's remembrance, resistance and a rhythm we carry forward

Aster Asem

Published: June 13, 2025 | Last Updated: July 1, 2025

As English words can have several definitions and connotations, I find interpreting phrases, even in ways the originators didn’t intend, can be a nice springboard for a ponder. As we move into Pride Month, I’ve had in my head a refrain from the AIDS crisis and surrounding surge of LGBTQ+ activism:

“We buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night.”

Burial. Even before modern humans, members of the genus Homo have buried our dead. On a practical level, it makes sense — decaying flesh smells. But what interests me more are the rituals that accompany burial. Why show reverence for a body that cannot perceive the respect?

It seems to me that we who must move on resist letting go — not just of the deceased, but of the parts of ourselves that were shaped by their presence. It’s why we have visitations before a funeral, as if their face alone can restore their company and why we impart formally their remains to earth or sea, as if their former tenant might come back home. It’s why, even years later, one might visit their grave, carved with a name that can outlast its letters — and why we keep those names alive: Sylvia Rivera. Frank Kameny. Stormé DeLarverie. And all others who pushed back hatred, step by incremental step.

Protest. Having researched a century’s worth of revolutionary movements, political scientist Erica Chenoweth of Harvard University says nonviolent collective action, including strikes and boycotts, by even 3.5% of a society can lead to significant and lasting change. Surveys by the PRRI, Pew Research Center and others say the majority of Americans oppose discrimination against LGBTQ+ people by a substantial margin, even if they stay quiet while conservative pundits vomit lies. Still, a toddler’s tantrum will exhaust them, while a crowd can sustain a chant even as some members must catch their breath.

Organizing and cooperating is essential in our continued struggle for our rights. But we, as LGBTQ+ people, exist as living protests, straining, breaking or linking together normative constructs. We are living defiance of abstract and arbitrary categorization, conscientious objectors by nature. Some sophists might equivocate “Pride” with their deadly sin, but every virtue of ours, every achievement, is our own. We should be proud, in both senses.

Dance. Even infants as young as six months will move to music. Dance can feel irresistible and is most beautiful, in my opinion, when one acquiesces. The intuitive movement needs no refinement or tradition, only authenticity without reservation. Music correlates with the mathematical structure of the universe, and when we dance, we integrate into that harmony. So, as we move ever forward into Pride Month and beyond, through the coming night and into the dawn beyond, let’s dance, let’s sing and let’s live legends.