I don’t think I can watch one more clip of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray or any other elected official grilling a member of the Trump Administration. The outcome is almost always the same. The lawmaker asks the question, the Trump lawbreaker obfuscates or lies through their teeth, and the lawmaker tells them that their actions are unacceptable, in violation of the law, or both.

Over and over, the same scenario repeats. Somehow, by posting these clips, Democratic officials seem to believe they can convince us, their constituents, that they’re doing all they can. Hardly. What they’re really doing is playing according to the script while the Trump Administration does everything it can, legality be damned, to either rewrite the script or create an entirely new one. 

What’s even more frustrating is that Democratic lawmakers knew what was coming. They had advance access to Trump’s script: Project 2025. For months, its key author, Russell Vought, has served as leader of the White House budget office and, more recently, as the acting director / chief dismantler of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 

Every decent actor knows that when you’re onstage and someone doesn’t follow the script, you have to adlib. If necessary, you must improvise, on the spot, an entirely new script. But instead, Democratic officials keep playing by the original playbook.

It’s fine to stay in the box as long as everyone agrees to adhere to accepted boundaries. But if the lawbreakers refuse to join you in the playpen of established law, you either need to reach beyond it, into unknown territory, or watch yourself reduced to impotently throwing sand in the faces of people who stonefacedly wipe it off, then use it to build their own mud castles in the sky.

Almost 56 years ago, on June 28, 1969, patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York’s West Village refused to play by the script. They refused to allow corrupt officers of the NYPD raid another gay bar for no other reasons than to harass and receive more under the table financial pay-offs.

In front of the Christopher Street bar where they could more or less be themselves, the Stonewall’s gay, trans, and lesbian patrons refused to passively follow the corrupt keepers of the law. Rather than let NYPD ID them, fine them, and load them into paddy wagons, they broke out of the playpen and fought back.

Our elected officials could learn a few things from the surviving rebels of the Stonewall Inn. Not that some of them, including Mark Segal, who was my comrade in the Gay Liberation Front, aren’t doing all they can to educate them. Mark went on to stage many boundary-breaking public actions in support of LGBTQ+ rights. He zapped Walter Cronkite on air and convinced him to abandon his homophobic stances. Mark also handcuffed himself to Independence Hall in protest of the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear cases involving LGBTQ+ people. (He did lots more than that.) And now, as the founder/publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, he’s writing some of the most powerful columns on LGBTQ rights that I’ve seen.

We vets of the Gay Liberation Front know the importance of Pride as a collective demonstration of strength, self-affirmation, and love. Yet I’m astounded to discover how many volunteer positions for Port Townsend Pride remain unfilled, and how few tickets have sold to Port Townsend’s first ever Films with Pride festival. Is it because, at a time when the LGBTQ+ community is under non-stop attack, people aren’t exactly in the mood to party?

A few days ago, I asked Ellen Broidy, whose advocacy led to the first Christopher Street Liberation Day marches — the first Pride marches — if she and her fellow instigators envisioned the first “Pride” as a protest, as a commemoration, and/or as a celebration?

Ellen responded, “The answer is ‘all of the above.’ In our naive way, we envisioned the march (not a parade, a march!) as a show of strength. Of course, that was a tad silly since we had absolutely no idea whether anyone would show up. Needless to say, we were more than pleasantly surprised when it was such a success.”

Now it’s Port Townsend’s LGBTQ community and its allies turn to surprise Pride’s organizers with their show of strength. Whether you choose to cover yourself in glitter, sing “YMCA,” or carry protest signs, show up! Do your part. Make clear to everyone in Jefferson County and beyond that we are not going to sit by meekly as LGBTQ+ rights are trampled and we, like the Jews of Nazi Germany, are falsely portrayed as one of the main causes of society’s ills.

In a seeming digression that will end up back on track, I applaud the happily expanded Leader news team for continuing to demand accountability from our elected officials and their employees. It is essential journalism to uncover the truth about huge salaries and attempts to bypass official policies. Bravo!

And bravo, as well, to Port Townsend City Council, City Manager John Mauro and the Olympic Peninsula YMCA for holding the line as Julie Jaman and the anti-trans Center for American Liberty pursued their lawsuit and settled for far, far less than they wanted. Trans rights are human rights.

Come support them and LGBTQ identity this Saturday at Pride in Pope Marine Park. Come celebrate LGBTQ+ people at Films with Pride. And then, if you’re LGBTQ, come join us at the annual gudlife LGBTQ+ potluck on Sunday, June 15, 1-5 p.m., in HG Carroll Park. Questions? Write me.

Jason Victor Serinus is a critic of culture, music, and audio. A longtime advocate for rights, equality, and freedom. He is also a professional whistler. Tips/thoughts/concerns: jvsaisi24@gmail.com.