It’s Pride month, the annual commemoration of the Stonewall anti-police riot and affirmation of gay, bisexual, transgender and other varieties of gender and sexual identity. 

My husband and I this year could celebrate our second anniversary of our fully legal wedding. Thousands of people of all colors and ages attend Northwest Arkansas Pride, the largest in the state. Groups from Walmart, Tyson and other corporations regularly join the parade. These are remarkable facts. 

Arkansas law doesn’t prevent firing or evicting a gay or trans person because of their identity, since legislators quashed Fayetteville’s attempt to change that. Laws passed this year allow the state’s health care providers to turn away LGBTQ+ patients in certain situations and ban trans kids from receiving gender-affirming health care or participating in sports along their gender identities. And of course Pride events remain controversial and often dangerous in many parts of the country and world. These are also remarkable facts. 

Arkansan LGBTQ+ people are. They will continue to be. And yesterday thousands of them cheered, laughed, hugged and danced together. That, obviously, is the most remarkable fact.