06-19-2017, 06:03 PM
I am cis-everything myself, but I was afforded an opportunity to see the Pride phenomenon from the inside. A rock band I was in was fronted by an out and "proud" lesbian woman, and our fanbase was awesomely diverse. We played a lot of gay bars and Pride festivals in the Central US, smack in bible-thumper land, where every non-cis person is guaranteed to have been made to feel very uncomfortable about who they are at some point...probably that very day. Here's what I observed:
Gay bars are some of the the best bars. Almost everyone there is in one of the few safe spaces that they know in their lives, so it's a place full of people that are just about the happiest they ever are. There aren't many of the usual terrible people that usually make bars terrible. Instead, they're just full of joy and light.
LGBTQ people are people, without exception, who have been forced through frightfully deep societal catalyst to fight for their identity as sovereign human beings with agency over their own lives. They are usually people of fascinatingly unique individual expression as a result.
Pride events are amazing, for a lot of the same reasons as LGBTQ bars and clubs. And it is not "pride" that is on display there, in the sense the article talked about. It's the other thing it talked about. It is dignity. These are people reclaiming their dignity, standing in their dignity, refusing to accept any more of the indignities that our culture doles out to them.
There is a form of the biblical deadly sin version of pride on display in this broader story, however. You pointed it out Jeremy:
"From personal experience, all I've heard from those that disagree with the lifestyle is further backlash claiming that it's simply being flaunted and they don't want to see it."
That's negative pride, right there. (Not you, those who "disagree" with someone else's lifestyle, just to be clear.) It is the epitome of pridefulness to look at a group of people who are different than you, to decide that first, they are not One with you, and that further, that you judge them to be beneath you, or unacceptable, or "flaunted when they should be shamefully hidden." To my mind, people who act that way should be pitied, loved out of their state of dysfunction, and thoroughly, THOROUGHLY ignored when it comes to their opinions about the way the world should be run.
Gay bars are some of the the best bars. Almost everyone there is in one of the few safe spaces that they know in their lives, so it's a place full of people that are just about the happiest they ever are. There aren't many of the usual terrible people that usually make bars terrible. Instead, they're just full of joy and light.
LGBTQ people are people, without exception, who have been forced through frightfully deep societal catalyst to fight for their identity as sovereign human beings with agency over their own lives. They are usually people of fascinatingly unique individual expression as a result.
Pride events are amazing, for a lot of the same reasons as LGBTQ bars and clubs. And it is not "pride" that is on display there, in the sense the article talked about. It's the other thing it talked about. It is dignity. These are people reclaiming their dignity, standing in their dignity, refusing to accept any more of the indignities that our culture doles out to them.
There is a form of the biblical deadly sin version of pride on display in this broader story, however. You pointed it out Jeremy:
"From personal experience, all I've heard from those that disagree with the lifestyle is further backlash claiming that it's simply being flaunted and they don't want to see it."
That's negative pride, right there. (Not you, those who "disagree" with someone else's lifestyle, just to be clear.) It is the epitome of pridefulness to look at a group of people who are different than you, to decide that first, they are not One with you, and that further, that you judge them to be beneath you, or unacceptable, or "flaunted when they should be shamefully hidden." To my mind, people who act that way should be pitied, loved out of their state of dysfunction, and thoroughly, THOROUGHLY ignored when it comes to their opinions about the way the world should be run.