It is easy to forget but we must remember
A call to arms by Anthony T. Eaton.
By Anthony T. Eaton
It is easy to forget how far we’ve come because, in many ways, that’s the comfort of progress. Rights are won, visibility increases, and the pain of the past begins to blur at the edges. The world feels a little more open, a little more accepting. But that ease comes with danger because forgetting is easy—too easy.
It’s easy to forget that our freedom came at a cost. That generation before us lived in fear. That people were arrested, institutionalized, castrated, beaten, murdered—not for what they did, but simply for who they were. And in some places, that still happens.
It’s easy to forget how the closet wasn’t a choice—it was survival. We concealed our identities, denied our love, and censored our very existence to stay safe. It’s easy to forget the panic of being outed and the loss of family, jobs, and homes.
It’s easy to forget that we were once jokes on television, caricatures meant to provoke laughter or pity but rarely respect. It is easy to forget that beneath those jokes was a more bottomless cruelty—a disdain cloaked in entertainment.
Yes, it is easy to forget how cruel the world has been to us. And how fragile our progress truly is.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
—George Santayana
We must remember—because remembering is resistance.
Our strength lies in knowing our past: the pain, the protests, the pride. We must stay rooted in the truth of where we’ve been because the fight is far from over. We are watching hard-won rights being challenged, erased, and rolled back. Vigilance begins with memory.
We must remember what it meant to be pushed to the margins, live in the shadows, and mourn while the world looked away. We must not forget how our government let us die during a plague because we were deemed disposable. We must remember the names of the trailblazers who spoke up when silence was deadly—and those who walked beside us in solidarity.
We must remember the rage, the resilience, the revolution.
Because if we forget, we risk allowing history to repeat itself.
We will fail the generations that fought to bring us this far if we forget.
Because if we forget, we will lose the ground we’ve gained.
So no—we will not forget.
Not now. Not ever.
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