Pride Month and Pigs
Rainbows over the Sanctuary
It seems like not a day goes by without headlines that are directly impacting the queer community in our country. And unlike years past when many businesses sponsored Pride events, we’re seeing news of businesses pulling their sponsorships, proving how little of a stake they have in the rights and needs of the LGBTQ+ community. For these businesses, Pride is a strategic decision that they can renege on at any time. Here at Woodstock, we don’t feel that way. We celebrate a Pride year-round, in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ community members. Gender, sexuality, and orientation are a vast spectrum both in humans and other species. And we believe that collective liberation includes all species. Our community is large and diverse, and we will always stand up for the LGBTQ+ individuals in it. Queer love is everywhere.
This year is also the six year anniversary of the day little piglets Marsha and Harvey came to us - we drove to pick them up at Rancho Relaxo, after they’d been discovered in a box labeled “discarded runts” by an activist and taken there.
Marsha as a little piglet six years ago
Marsha is named after Marsha P Johnson, a key Black queer activist who participated in Stonewall in 1969. Marsha’s friend Harvey was named after Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official in California. Naming the rescued piglets after these prominent figures in queer history was our way of honoring the activists who have done so much to fight for the human liberation of LGBTQ+ individuals. Harvey passed away in 2020 from medical complications, a devastating loss for the Sanctuary and all the staff here who loved and cared for him. We miss Harvey every day but are so grateful to be watching Marsha thrive with her best friend Ari, and look forward to caring for them both for many more years.
Then of course we have Sylvia pig, rescued after falling off a transport truck in the summer of 2023. We named her after Sylvia Rivera, another prominent trans activist figure at Stonewall. And then we have Angela sheep, named after lesbian political activist, philosopher, and academic Angela Davis. And in the future we’re sure we will try to honor other changemakers like these.
Sylvia pig
But not everyone is happy to see an animal sanctuary uplifting other causes.
It’s 2025 and we still get comments like this:
Comments from our social media posts about Pride
Why do so many people push back against the idea of including multiple marginalized groups in their animal activism? After all, we are all animals. And nonhuman animals both in the wild and in domestic situations have been observed to have their own queer communities. Collective liberation is a big part of our values—thought we work mostly with nonhuman animals we know that no one is free until all of us are free, from all backgrounds, orientations, and species.
We cannot achieve animal liberation without also fighting for the liberation of other communities because we are all connected.
The systems that keep species like pigs confined and exploited are the same systems that target Black and Brown neighborhoods with their pollution of the air and water. The systems that try to convince us that other sentient beings are less worthy of life than humans are the same systems that try to convince us that some human lives are worth more than others. The systems that normalize the commodification of cows’ reproductive systems are the same systems seeking to control the reproductive rights of humans. We need to pay attention to these connections or we will get nowhere.
Board members and employees marching in local Pride events
P.S. If you are looking for Pride gear this year, don’t get it from a company who might just decide to look the other way next year when it’s not profitable for them anymore. Purchases from our store benefit the hundreds of rescued animals here, and wearing these messages reinforce the idea that liberation is intersectional. Be proud all year.