#PRIDE - "Gay is Good"

 

Hello there, guys, gals, and fellow non-binary pals!

Pride is among us! A whole 30 days where we get to recognize the LGBTQ+ community and our incredibly hard-fought journey to achieving equal rights - which is somehow still on-going, 70 years after the gay rights movement began. This year, I want to take part in it for the first time, and let you all in on some of our history and what Pride means to me.

First and foremost, Pride is not a celebration - it was not borne out of a desire for a big gay party. Pride is a protest. In the 1950s, the United States government was actively seeking out homosexuals in an attempt to purge them all from the workforce. And when I say actively, I mean that cops were hiding behind secret doors in men's restrooms, waiting for gay men to come in to engage in sexual activity together. Some were even entrapping gay men by soliciting them for sex.

This was a time when communism was a big threat in the country, and the rationale was that homosexuals were a security risk - that they could be seduced and reveal state secrets to US enemies. This was also a time when the American Psychiatric Association officially considered homosexuality a mental disorder. There were all kinds of unfounded assumptions that straight people made about the gay experience, calling the people of that time deviants and perverts. The confusing thing about all of this was that the government couldn't tell who was a homosexual - everyone did their job well. But the moment they discovered that someone was gay, they were unilaterally fired. 

So the Mattachine Society of Washington (MSW), the first gay organization of the homophile movement, began protesting this unfair and prejudiced treatment. Eager to show respectability to the straight community, its leader, Frank Kameny, instituted a strict dress code for picketers to follow as they protested. It didn't really show a lot of the variety and unique characteristics that the LGBTQ+ community of that time had to offer, but in Kameny's eyes, if the government was going to take them seriously, they couldn't look like a joke.

All throughout this time, gay people were being arrested and jailed, fired from their jobs, and some of them were even being killed for being gay. Gay bars were regularly raided by police at random, and anytime they found gay people dancing together, they were arrested (yes, it was illegal for gay people to dance together back then). On June 28, 1969, the police raided the Stonewall Inn, one of the places that LGBTQ+ persons could go to be together, hang out, dance, and drink. However, the patrons decided enough was enough. Riots broke out, bricks were thrown, cop cars were vandalized, fires were set. The Stonewall Riots marked a turning point in the fight for gay rights.

In 1970, exactly a year after the Stonewall Riots, the first Pride Parade took place to commemorate the iconic event the year before. This began a tradition that continues even today. It is an important event for LGBTQ+ people all over the country, as we remember our past and those that helped us get to where we are, as well as to recognize that there is still a lot of work to do.

Today, gay and lesbian couples get to experience the joys of legal marriage under the law, enjoying the same rights and benefits as straight couples. However, this is only 6 years old, and has not been without attempt at repeal.

Up until recently, transgender individuals were able to experience life-saving medical care throughout the country (mostly). Yet recently, there has been legislation passed (or attempted to be passed) to ban transgender healthcare for those under 18, and/or to attempt to block transgender individuals from participating in sports (Texas, Arkansas, Florida...). The lawmakers supporting or spearheading these bills sound like they're talking about caring for young folks by "protecting them," though they seem to be actively ignoring the empirical evidence that surrounds this issue, that directly contradicts their efforts. They don't seem to realize that they are contributing to the factors associated with trans youth mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide.

I have a lot of thoughts that I could share this month about the LGBTQ+ community, Pride, and related topics. However, if there is something you want to learn more about, please feel free to let me know, and I can talk more about it.

This Pride is one to celebrate, for sure - we're here, we're queer, and we're not going anywhere. We're beautiful, and our difference is what makes us brilliant. Yet it is also an ongoing protest: we're constantly discriminated against, invalidated, dehumanized, pathologized, criminalized, on both an individual and national level (global too, but I feel like that's a whole different conversation). People don't understand our experience, so they make unfounded, uninformed assumptions, and then talk down to us as if they are sorry for us, lamenting an issue they made up in their minds.

This month I want to show everyone who interacts with my blog that the LGBTQ+ community is legitimate. We're not pathological, broken, dirty, or immoral. We're beautiful, resilient, creative, loyal, loving, fun, unique people who add so much to this society that you would miss something if we were all not here. And we are all here: we're government workers, painters, dancers, doctors, clergy, lawyers, psychologists, friends, siblings, cashiers, engineers, soldiers. This society would not be as good as it is without us.

Happy Pride, loves <3