A buddy of mine said she doesn’t go to Pride. “I’m a lesbian. I’m out. I get it. I just don’t see the need to put rainbows on everything. I mean, straight people don’t have parades.”
Don’t they? Every day is straight pride day, isn’t it? Straight people don’t have to come out as straight. They don’t have to petition for marriage rights. They don’t have to petition for partner benefits. They don’t have to worry about access to their partner in the hospital. Parental rights. Gender rights. The right to go to school and not be harassed. Nobody’s getting their ass kicked for being straight. The oppressed classes should absolutely celebrate their solidarity. We have to work to be recognized, we have to work to have rights, we have to work for safe communities and civil liberties, and we work as a community and when we come together to celebrate we throw a fucking parade.
It’s as important as shopping at your local bookstore and buying produce from local growers. It’s the whole point of BEING local. This is your community. We are all in this together—this life. There is no such thing as too much love and community. If you want Pride to grow and thrive, then you come and march or cheer and help it grow and thrive. This is your community. Support it.
You know something? Too often I think like your friend. And I certainly have become even more complacent living here in Scandinavia, where no one gives a crap what kind of consenting adult you sleep with.
But you’re right. You’re absolutely right. And why have I never thought of Pride as a celebration of what we’ve worked for?
Maybe you started with pride? I had to work for mine, crush out years of shame, and that’s how I realized pride was a celebration for the work. This year, in Spokane, there were so many kids—probably half of the 6000 people who showed were under 21. It was fucking amazing. They’re out there with their radical liberated selves. It’s incredible.
When I realized I was gay, I was more traumatized by the fact that I was in love with a girl I couldn’t have. The gay started as a secondary thing, and it sort of always has been.
That’s not to say that I don’t fight those demons, too, sometimes. But less, now. And those kids… the world is going to be a very different scene in twenty years. It’s all worthy of celebration.