Freedom has never been a passive gift. It is a fight we carry forward, generation after generation. 

Living in Alabama, I’m aware that every right we enjoy was won by the people, not simply granted by lawmakers. Black elders in Montgomery remind us that the Montgomery Bus Boycott wasn’t just a symbolic protest — it was 381 days of relentless organizing, sacrifice, and resistance. These histories are blueprints for our movements today, and we need them now more than ever.

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The LGBTQ+ community has always endured. It’s more crucial than ever to remember our strengths.
When care isn’t freely given, we build it ourselves.

As a volunteer for Montgomery Pride United, I have witnessed how the LGBTQ+ movement is sustained by elders who survived bar crackdowns, led revolutionary marches, and endured the HIV/AIDS crisis. Now we’re seeing the state of Alabama work to intentionally suppress this crucial history. 

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At the federal level under the current administration, LGBTQ+ people are facing an aggressive, coordinated effort to censor our stories and restrict equal access to public life. More than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have already been introduced across the United States in 2025. Here’s what’s at stake in Alabama:

• House Bill 4 introduces the vague term “gender-oriented conduct” into the state obscenity law — an intentional tactic to ban books about queer and trans people from public libraries.
• House Bill 67 is a drag ban also designed to target and criminalize innocent trans people for simply existing in schools or libraries.
• House Bill 244 expands the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law through 12th grade, further isolating queer and trans youth while censoring free speech, LGBTQ+ history, and the contributions of queer and trans leaders from classrooms.
• House Bill 246, the “Pronoun Bill,” would prohibit public school, college, and university employees from using a student’s name or pronouns that are “inconsistent with a student’s legal name or biological sex” without explicit written parental permission.
• The inaccurate and harmful “What Is a Woman Act” that enshrines medically inaccurate definitions of “male” and “female” and ignores the existence of intersex, transgender, and nonbinary people. It was recently signed by Governor Kay Ivey (R) and takes effect October 1.

Anti-LGBTQ+ bills have emboldened extremists on the ground in Alabama. These bills are not just targeting LGBTQ+ people; they are a direct attack on First Amendment freedoms.

When Alabama lawmakers passed an anti-DEI law last year, a Black Student Union was forced to give up its meeting space, excluding Black students from necessary and safe places to find community. These actions are part of a broader strategy to roll back civil rights and silence those who challenge systemic oppression. In 2023, lawmakers threatened the Alabama Department of Archives and History’s budget for inviting Invisible Histories, a community archive organization, to present a lecture on Alabama’s rich, and too often untold, LGBTQ+ History.

Since 2024, we have seen an increase in challenged and banned books across public libraries – including The Pronoun Book, The Meaning of Pride, The Hate U Give, and Being You: a First Conversation about Gender. Our local LGBTQ+ community center, managed by Montgomery Pride United, has also heard from many queer teens that they fear repercussions by both teachers and students for being themselves.

This onslaught of oppressive laws is meant to make life harder for queer and transgender people in the state. But here’s what lawmakers fail to understand: LGBTQ+ people are not leaving Alabama. No amount of hateful legislation will erase us. We are active in our communities, schools, churches, and in every facet of public life across the state.

Right now, lawmakers are not just trying to ban books — they are trying to deny we exist online and in real life. But our history is our power. We can help ensure this never happens by joining the collective effort to preserve LGBTQ+ histories, both digitally and physically, with Invisible Histories, a community-based archive working with LGBTQ+ organizations across the South to protect the legacy of LGBTQ+ Alabamians and help safeguard the online records of DEI programs set to be eliminated because of the President’s executive order. 

We’ve survived attacks against LGBTQ+ people before, and this time, we have the tools to protect our history. Our elders were battle-tested, building movements from the ground up and laying the foundation for the social progress we no longer can take for granted. It is our turn to ensure their wisdom and resilience are imparted to future generations.

Jose Vazquez (they/them) organizes in Montgomery, Alabama, via South Florida. They are on the founding team of the Bayard Rustin Community Center, the only LGBTQ+ space and thrift store in central Alabama, and on the Board of Invisible Histories, a community-based archive.

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