We celebrate LGBTQ Pride because for too long we have been invisible and forced to live in shame and fear. We celebrate because too many lives have been lost to win us the right to be proud of who we are and to love who we love. And we invite you to celebrate with us, because we couldn’t have reached this point without our LGBTQ allies, and we need your help and support to continue making progress.

If Maine’s senior senator, Susan Collins, votes to confirm Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court justice, we fear the scales will be tipped in favor of the Trump administration’s unjust and inhumane immigration policies.

History reveals that who gets to vote and how much our votes matter have less to do with citizenship and more to do with who wields power and who is left disenfranchised. It’s a history of progress and the expansion of our body politic as we struggled with our collective conscience, and as our vision of what and who our representative democracy truly represents changed with the times.

We need to move beyond diversity to inclusivity that gives our immigrant neighbors a voice in what affects them.

Class and identity politics are not mutually exclusive. We are at our best as a society when we appreciate the finer details, nuances, context and intersections of our increasingly diverse nation, while collectively realizing that our individual experiences have a common source in the human condition.

General Assistance and other aid help keep those who need it from falling through the cracks of poverty, crime, drugs and prison. It keeps them hoping that, tomorrow, they will be better educated, have a better job and have a better life.