This week the big news has

been Pride, which comes to San Diego for its 30th anniversary celebrations this weekend, and politics, with the 2004 Democratic National Convention featuring the largest contingent of GLBT delegates ever. And looking through this year’s 30th-anniverseray edition of our annual Pride feature, it’s really easy to make a connection between Pride and politics.

As you can read over and over again in this week’s stories and commentaries, from Deputy Mayor Toni Atkins’ guest column on page 58 to the Pride profiles in our feature, San Diego’s first Pride celebrations were not so much parties as disruptions – they were somewhat somber protest marches by people who were shunned and told by police with a not-so-friendly nudge and a wink, “We cannot guarantee your safety.” In short, our city’s first Pride organizers and participants were political activists. And all of us Pride partiers coming into town for Pride this week stand on their shoulders, as Atkins puts it, benefiting from their brave actions.

They took risks: By walking for Pride in the 1970s, some risked their job security, their family relationships, and even their personal safety. John Ciaccio, founder of the now-defunct Gayzette, by speaking publicly about AIDS after his diagnosis, took a risk. Al Best, by running for city office in the late 1970s as an openly gay man, and Neil Good for doing the same in 1987, took a risk. The late attorney Tom Homann, by fighting for civil rights and First Amendment rights for GLBT people and taking his arguments all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, took a risk. Gary Rees, by being a businessman who directed his attention away from personal gain and toward maintaining and founding The Center and AIDS Walk, took a risk. Brad Truax, by taking his career and experience as a physician and directing it toward understanding the AIDS epidemic, took a risk.

If Pride is one big party, it’s these early risk-takers – many of whom are commemorated on The Center’s new Wall of Honor – who are the official hosts. Thanks to them, one can say without exaggerating that GLBTs in America today are looking full equality squarely in the face. Equal rights – in the workplace, in schools, in sacred institutions such as marriage – are visible on the horizon.

Are we tired of hearing that the battle isn’t over? Well, the battle, as it happens, isn’t over.

In spite of these efforts that would seem truly incredible to our community’s founding activists, gays and lesbians can legally be discriminated against in the workplace in 36 states, and transgenders in 46; the misguided policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” still bans gays and lesbians from serving in our armed forces, even while older retirees and reservists are being called up to serve in our beleaguered troops; HIV/AIDS prevention funding, after regular annual increases, plummeted in 2002 and has been flat-funded since that year, even while HIV rates are on the rise; and while same-sex couples and families have enjoyed more visibility than ever before and have even been legally married for the first time ever in America this past year, unmarried same-sex couples still have no right to care for ill partners through the Family and Medical Leave Act, nor can they inherit social security benefits when their partner dies or petition U.S. Immigration to sponsor foreign partners to immigrate to this country.

Perhaps none of these are good enough reasons to stay aware of our political heritage and the political issues of today and to show up at a polling booth on Nov. 2.

If that’s the case, here’s one more reason that should be reason enough in itself: The Federal Marriage Amendment. American gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are living under a President who would rather rewrite our sacred U.S. Constitution than give our loves and our families equality, American-style.

In an otherwise historic march toward progress, President Bush and other conservative Republicans have put us at a historic crossroads. When you look back at this era 10 years from now, much as we look back on the AIDS era, the Anita Bryant era, or the African-American civil rights era, where will you say you were? Were you simply partying, or did you at least make it to a polling booth?

This November, our country comes to a crucial crossroads. It’s a pivotal election, and our millions-strong GLBT voting block can make a difference. In 2000, Bush won the White House by a famous 537 votes. Where were you that day? Where will you be in November?

Have some Pride – be aware, and when it’s time to vote, be there.