We are in Pride month, a time to celebrate the legacy of LGBTQ people, especially the ones who pushed back against societal norms and institutional violence just for the right to be. We also draw close to Juneteenth, a time to celebrate the wins and sacrifices of our ancestors, who survived centuries of horror. 

Long before policy wins and protest cycles, before hashtags and headlines, our communities practiced collective courage. We cultivated land. We built cooperatives. We organized mutual aid. We created safety for one another when no institution would. We imagined and enacted freedom in the cracks of systems designed to deny it.

2025 was hard. It required us to respond to immediate threats while staying oriented toward the long-term work of building power. It was also a year of major wins and beautiful shifts, as we celebrated 10 years of BlackOUT, deepened our political education offerings, updated our curriculum, and trained over 1,300 Black direct action practitioners across the country.