Milestones

BY MICHAEL AARON

If you’ve been within 50 feet of me or stalked me on Facebook for longer than 10 seconds, you likely know that QSalt- Lake Magazine is celebrating its 15th anniversary and 300th issue with the magazine you are holding in your hands right now. It’s a milestone of which we are proud, and it got me thinking. Is this issue any more important simply because it has a number with a few zeros in it? Like birthdays and anniversaries, we tend to celebrate those with fives or zeros at the end of the number more than others.

Milestones are important, though. They help measure your success in increments. We tend not to celebrate each day we woke up (though it is arguable that we should), but we do celebrate when we make it around the Sun one more time. While on a road trip, I watch for mile markers like 100, 200 and 300 so I know that I’m that much closer to exit 309 that drops me close to home.

This year, our movement is celebrating a milestone, as it was 50 years ago this June when a riot took place as queer folk stood up to police and said, “That is enough.” Stonewall is looked on as the birth of Pride, even though our struggles were organized for many years before the event.

As I hear people say that our fight for civil rights was won in such a “short amount of time,” I remind people that 50 years is a long fight. This wasn’t won in the last five or ten years. It was won after decades of blood, sweat and tears by many, many people.

This 50-year marker doesn’t mean we’ve reached our exit. Anyone who reads the news sees how precarious our civil rights and acceptance are. As other civil rights movements show, this is an ongoing battle.

So let’s celebrate this milestone and keep on driving towards the next. Happy Pride.