Sarah Riggs Amico – one of the Democrats hoping to unseat U.S. Sen. David Perdue – kicked off Pride month with a call for racial equality and a public conversation with transgender advocates. 

Her statement, issued Monday, linked the ongoing protests about police brutality and the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis to the Stonewall Riots in 1969 that launched the modern gay rights movement.

“Fifty-one years ago, the Stonewall uprising was in direct response to police violence against New York City’s Black and brown LGBTQ+ community and led by Black and brown trans women,” Amico said.

“In the wake of repeated violence against innocent Black Americans in 2020, the best way we can celebrate Pride is by standing up and demanding every American, but particularly Black Americans, are given equal justice under the law,” she added.

On June 3, Amico hosts an online conversation about justice and equality with transgender activists Feroza Syed and Charlotte Clymer. The event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and participants can register here. (UPDATE | The event was rescheduled for June 4.)

Syed is a trans activist who facilitates a PFLAG chapter in Johns Creek and served as a grand marshal of the Atlanta Pride parade in 2019. She was profiled in a March 2018 issue of Q magazine, and again in February of this year. Amico included Syed in her campaign launch video. Clymer is an author, veteran and former press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign. 

Amico is locked in a competitive Democratic primary with six other candidates, including Jon Ossoff and Teresa Tomlinson. The primary also includes gay candidate Marckeith DeJesus.

Amico (photo), along with Ossoff and Tomlinson, marched in the Atlanta Pride parade last October. In her Senate run, she has backed the federal Equality Act and blasted the Trump administration’s record on LGBTQ equality. In her unsuccessful 2018 run for lieutenant governor, she campaigned as an evangelical Christian that backs LGBTQ equality and strongly opposes anti-gay “religious freedom” bills.

Amico’s full statement on Pride month:

“Today marks the beginning of Pride month, celebrated every June in commemoration of the June 1969 Stonewall uprising in Greenwich Village that launched the ongoing work to secure equal rights for all LGBTQ+ community members.

Fifty-one years ago, the Stonewall uprising was in direct response to police violence against New York City’s Black and brown LGBTQ+ community and led by Black and brown trans women. In the wake of repeated violence against innocent Black Americans in 2020, the best way we can celebrate Pride is by standing up and demanding every American, but particularly Black Americans, are given equal justice under the law. 

Pride, at its core, is an affirmation of the innate value of every human being — no matter who they love. We must stand and collectively call out those sitting passively on the sidelines. I stand with Black people in their fight and I stand with all victims of discrimination and brutality, because when we stand shoulder to shoulder as allies in this fight the country sees there are more of us who believe in holding our nation to its promises of equality and justice for all.”