Two events hit the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) community hard as this second decade of the 21st century dawned frigidly on Buffalo. Lindsay Harmon was savagely stabbed, blinding her in one eye, while her attacker uttered anti-gay slurs, as Harmon exited Roxy’s nightclub with her girlfriend.

As this sobering attack filtered through Allentown’s close-knit community, the LGBT community was affronted by an offense less physically violent, but every bit as insidious: The Rev. Darius Pridgen moved to the front of the pack of contenders for the vacated Common Council seat of Brian Davis.

Pridgen had the support of the Brown administration. He had the support of the disgraced Davis. He had the support of Grass Roots. He did not have the support of the largest population of LGBT individuals, businesses, professional and medical service providers in all of Erie County.

A letter was sent to Pridgen asking that he clarify offensive statements he made in relation to HIV/AIDS and the gay community. In addition, Pridgen was asked if his sworn religious convictions would interfere with his sworn civic responsibility to represent all residents of the Ellicott District and the City of Buffalo at large. Regrettably, he did not respond. His silence spoke volumes.

While more than 18,000 individuals from around the world expressed outrage and concern for Harmon, a few committed activists got busy on the ground, challenging backroom politics, the Democratic political machine and the status quo. We were gratified to see mounting political pressure erode the small but powerful lobby for Pridgen. At this writing, the Council appears poised to appoint another individual, a small but encouraging toehold upon which to enter this new decade.

There is still much work ahead. The reason the LGBT community requires hate crime laws and marriage equality is that we continue to live a “separate but unequal” reality. We possess the inalienable rights of every American, yet we daily face unrelenting religious and partisan defamation, physical threats and myriad affronts to our families and our character. We are dogged by a pervasive bias, sanctimonious intolerance and indifference to the violence we suffer in words and deeds.

Ironically, the term “Stonewall” refers to civil rights unrest in 1960s Greenwich Village by a few angry drag queens, many of them African-American, who simply had enough of New York City police abuses. The “OUT” in OUTspoken refers to the courage it takes to live an authentic life, as opposed to one lived in shame and hiding.

How the LGBT community responds is very much dependent on the response of elected officials to these unacceptable events. We will continue to demand our civil rights as Americans, and our innate dignity as human beings. That is what we have to say. For their part, the mayor and other officials remain provocatively silent.

Paul Morgan is a member of and organizer for OUTspoken for Equality.