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As Party Favorz closes out our Gay Pride series—celebrating empowerment, self-love, and freedom—I can’t ignore the direction the United States is drifting.

This afternoon, Washington, D.C. will stage a grand military parade for the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday. Tanks, Black Hawk helicopters, and 6,700 soldiers will rumble down Constitution Avenue, turning what began as an anniversary salute into a made-for-TV tribute to the president on his own birthday.

Meanwhile, the nation edges toward authoritarianism. Over the past week, masked ICE agents swept through Los Angeles in raids that detained scores of immigrants—many with legal status—stoking fear far beyond the undocumented community. The playbook is familiar: demonize “others,” then expand the target list.

High-profile confrontations underscore how aggressively the administration punishes dissent. Federal agents forced California Senator Alex Padilla to the ground and hand-cuffed him during a press conference; he was released but not formally arrested. Newark’s mayor, Ras Baraka, was arrested after trying to inspect a new private detention center, and New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver now faces federal charges for defending him.

The crackdown isn’t limited to immigration. Elite universities from Harvard on down are under investigation, broadcasters like CBS and ABC have paid steep settlements after First-Amendment-protected reporting, and law firms viewed as “too liberal” have seen security clearances yanked and federal contracts canceled. Those who complied did so under duress; those who fought back have won some courtroom victories, yet the White House often ignores rulings it dislikes, even from a generally sympathetic Supreme Court.

That same Court will soon decide Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, a case that could strip away no-cost coverage for preventive care—including PrEP, cancer screenings, and birth-control prescriptions—for more than 150 million people. If the justices side with Braidwood, insurers could drop these benefits or price them out of reach—an outcome that would hit LGBTQ communities first and hardest.

Our relationships, marriages, and hard-won legal protections are again on the line. While extremists ban LGBTQ books and shoehorn sectarian doctrine into public classrooms, we’re asked to trust that we won’t be next. History says otherwise.

So as we celebrate Pride for the rest of June, remember what’s at stake. Martin Niemöller’s warning still echoes:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a trade unionist.