Sunday, October 11, 2026
On June 29, millions of LGBTQ people and their allies took to the streets of Manhattan to celebrate Pride and commemorate the 56th anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, a turning point in the battle for civil rights in America and the world.
This milestone comes at a pivotal time — one in which President Trump is weaponizing the federal bureaucracy to wage unprecedented attacks on LGBTQ Americans on every conceivable front. From removing the name of the heroic Woodmere native Harvey Milk from a U.S. Navy ship — during Pride Month — to eliminating LGBTQ-specific services from the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, to making concerted efforts to legislate transgender Americans out of existence, Trump’s campaign is regimented and deliberately cruel — and these are but a few examples.
What we are witnessing leads me to think back to my senior year at Uniondale High School in 1979-80, and the struggles of a dear friend as he sought to live his truth. During math class, one of my best friends, Christian Cooper, began passing me notes, each containing a clue to something about himself that he wanted to tell me. This persisted for about six months, and at the end, he came out to me as gay.
This was more than 45 years ago, at a time when LGBTQ visibility was minimal in popular culture and, in the immediate aftermath of Anita Bryant’s scorched-earth campaign against gay equality, public acceptance was shaky, at best. It took tremendous courage for Cooper to come out — as it does for anybody, at any time, who is revealing him or herself to the world. My Catholic faith, which has helped me navigate my life, teaches me a simple message: God is love, and God created us all in His vision.
If He made someone to be LGBTQ, that clearly shows me that that is how God wants that person to love and live their life. With the focus Jesus placed on those perceived as the outcasts of society throughout the Scriptures, I believe we have a calling to extend our hand in love, especially when you consider the tremendously heightened socioeconomic risks the LGBTQ community experiences. These hazards will only be exacerbated by the Trump administration’s rush to enact a budget that shreds America’s social safety net programs in order to give billionaires and multimillionaires tax cuts.
There has, however, been noticeable progress that we can all draw strength from. Over the past five years, we have seen a tremendous increase in the number and size of Pride celebrations in communities across Nassau County. That includes my hometown of Freeport, where the third annual Pride on the Mile grew to include its first ever Pride Parade.
In Mineola — and thousands of communities in the 50 states — “No Kings” rallies, protesting the Trump administration’s reckless, cruel policies and tax giveaways to the wealthy, drew millions, showing that resistance is alive and well and people are poised to fight for the future of the nation.
As for Cooper? After Uniondale High, I’ve been overjoyed to watch him excel and thrive in his career, as he pursues his passions and fights for equality for every American. In doing so, he earned a Daytime Emmy in 2024 for his National Geographic show “Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper.”
Without a doubt, members of the LGBTQ community, and the people who love and support them, are experiencing tremendous adversity at the hands of those who seek to create hysteria and exploit the ensuing outcry for self-serving means. Without our collective voices, there is the very real threat of rights being pushed back even further than they already have been — and the resulting harm to everyday Nassau County residents and people across America would be incalculable and unconscionable.
Resistance does not always have to be grand; it can be as simple as offering a kind, supportive ear to someone facing hard times and connecting them to resources. While the federal government no longer works with the Trevor Project on the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, this extraordinary organization is still hard at work across America, serving LGBTQ people, with a focus on aiding at-risk youth.
If you or a loved one are in need, reach them 24/7 by calling (866) 488-7386, texting START to 678-678, or visiting thetrevorproject.org.
Debra Mulé, of Freeport, represents Nassau County’s 6th Legislative District and is the Legislature’s alternate deputy minority leader.
