Each year, during Pride month, we take time out to reflect on what is important to the GLBT community. Here’s my list: a fair national immigration policy, reproductive freedom, elimination of racial disparities in the criminal justice system, affordable health care and protecting social security.

My guess is that right now you are thinking: “These aren’t our issues! What about marriage equality, ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ protecting transgender people from discrimination, homelessness among GLBT youth or hate crimes based on sexual orientation?” The answer lies in an old African proverb: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.” In other words, unless all groups that seek justice and equality unite to defeat discrimination, we will each continue to fall short of our goals.

It has been common in recent years to hear California described as a “minority majority” state. This means that while the number of people in each minority group may be relatively small, together we make up a majority of the state’s residents. Despite this “minority majority,” the masters of wedge politics have targeted one group after another with discriminatory measures, almost always successfully. We tend to think of these ballot measures as only affecting Latinos or women or GLBT people; and, therefore, only those groups should care about them. We do our opponents’ work for them.

It is past time to turn this pattern on its head, and this year’s San Diego Pride celebration – with its theme of United for Equality – is the perfect place to start.

GLBT people often experience a double whammy of discrimination. Because we are members of every community, we not only become targets of homophobia, but we also are subjected to sexism, racism, ageism, xenophobia, anti-union sentiment and every other form of intolerance. This is one reason why we should all care about fair treatment for women, people of color, seniors, immigrants and working people. It’s about caring for our own.

The second reason for working in alliance with other progressive groups is that politics is a numbers game. Majority rules – that’s the American way, at least at the ballot box. There is a very real chance California will face a ballot measure in 2008 that seeks to permanently prohibit marriage equality for same-sex couples. Even if every single eligible member of the GLBT community were to vote against it – and we know that won’t happen – we would still lose. Alliances with other fair-minded groups can help us forge a winning majority. But if we expect others to be there for us, we must be there for them. That means contacting Congress on immigration, helping to defeat ballot measures that restrict the reproductive rights of young women, and lobbying for universal health care and affordable housing. That’s how we tie up the lion.

There are direct benefits to this approach, too. Every step forward in the fight for equality and freedom becomes a springboard for the next step. For example, the very same legal precedents regarding personal choice and privacy that underpin court decisions on reproductive rights are also the basis for decisions that overturned sodomy laws. A famous Supreme Court decision that outlawed the ban on interracial marriage and established freedom to marry as a fundamental constitutional right will be key to establishing that same freedom for same-sex couples.

In the end, however, more than self-interest should guide our actions when it comes to promoting the equality of all people. It is simply the right thing to do. As people who have experienced the pain of second-class status, who have lived in fear of mistreatment, who have had doors closed in our faces, each member of the GLBT community knows the value of equality. While we may not have fully achieved it yet ourselves, equality is a gift that can be shared without diminishing our own portion.

So to celebrate Pride this year, I ask you to do what you have always done: join, donate, march, shout, wave a flag, wear a button. But do it on behalf of justice and equality for all.