Now That You Know: A Stoic Response to Injustice During Pride Month
“You may choose to look away, but you can never again say you did not know.” —William Wilberforce
There are moments in life when we are confronted with a clear, morally unambiguous truth that strips away all our comfortable illusions. Wilberforce’s words aren’t just a condemnation of apathy but an indictment of complicity. Once you’ve seen injustice, silence is no longer neutral. It’s a choice.
Ancient Stoics would have understood this. For all their restraint and talk of inner calm, the Stoics were not spectators. They believed in moral clarity and civic virtue. To live a good life was not to retreat from the world but to meet it head-on—with courage, justice, and integrity.
Marcus Aurelius wrote: “If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it.”
That sounds simple enough. But what happens when doing what is right or speaking what is true comes with consequences? When it may cost you social standing, convenience, or peace? We’re seeing this tension play out right now during LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
Pride Month should be a time of celebration, remembrance, and renewed commitment to the dignity and rights of LGBTQ+ people. But this year, many organizations, businesses, and institutions are pulling back their public support. Flags are quietly not raised. Campaigns are scaled down. Social media goes quiet.
Why? Because of pressure. Because of fear. Because of politics.
The far-right, MAGA-aligned movement has made LGBTQ+ inclusion a cultural flashpoint. Their strategy is simple: intimidate, threaten, politicize, and then shame institutions into silence. And in far too many cases, it’s working.
It would be easy to rationalize this retreat: We’re just trying to stay out of politics. We don’t want to alienate anyone. It’s a business decision. But the Stoics would have seen through that veneer. They knew that avoiding discomfort at the cost of justice was not wisdom. It’s cowardice. Epictetus said it plainly: “Freedom is the name of virtue: to be wise, and just, and temperate, and magnanimous.”
If we claim to value freedom, then we must value the freedom and dignity of everyone, especially those most under threat. Pride Month isn’t just a cultural moment; it’s a mirror. It reflects who we are willing to stand with and who we’re willing to abandon when the stakes rise.
The Stoics taught that virtue begins in reason but must end in action. To contemplate injustice and do nothing is not a neutral act but a form of surrender. From a 2018 reflection in Can’t Defeat Sunrise or Hope, I’d written: “Hope is not blind optimism. It’s saying, ‘I see the injustice, and I will not look away.'” That’s Stoicism in practice. Not wishful thinking, but the clear-eyed refusal to let fear or cynicism dictate your behavior. Once you know what is right, you are responsible for how you respond.
There is a subtle danger in the cultural moment we’re living through. It is a creeping temptation to pull back from public expressions of solidarity in order to protect ourselves. But Stoicism reminds us that safety is not the highest good. Virtue is.
You don’t need to march in a parade or shout slogans to live out this virtue. You simply have to refuse to abandon the truth.
- If you run a business, don’t suddenly “go neutral“ when Pride Month arrives.
- If you’re in a church, don’t fall silent while LGBTQ+ members are attacked or erased.
- If you’re in a community, speak up when you hear cruelty masquerading as conviction.
- If you’re a person of conscience, live as though you believe what you say you believe—even when it costs something.
Aurelius also wrote: “A wrongdoer is often a man who has left something undone, not always one who has done something.” That line haunts me. Not because I’ve committed terrible acts but because I know there have been moments when I said nothing. Did nothing. Looked away. That’s what makes Wilberforce’s quote so damning—and so necessary. Now that we know, we cannot pretend not to.
Injustice against the LGBTQ+ community is not hypothetical. It’s visible in the banning of books, the rollback of rights, the targeting of trans youth, the erasure of queer families, and the chilling rhetoric from political leaders who weaponize religion and “freedom“ against people simply trying to live in peace.
We are not powerless, but we are responsible. As Pride Month continues, it is tempting to wait for someone else to take the risk, to say, “It’s not my issue.“ But the Stoics would remind us that if it concerns justice, it is your issue.
So here’s where I land. I won’t pretend to have all the answers. But I know this much:
- I’ll do my best not to look away.
- I won’t pretend not to know.
- And I won’t confuse silence with virtue.
Because now that I know—and now that you know—we both have a choice. Not between comfort and chaos, but between complicity and courage.
