Straight Pride v. Gay Pride
The concept of Straight Pride originated in 2017 as a protest in response to Gay Pride, which runs through the month of June every summer.
The necessity for Gay Pride is quite clear – violence against members of the LGBTQ community runs rampant all over the world.
In the United States specifically, NBC News reports “there were 7,175 bias crimes in 2017 involving 8,828 victims. Victims targeted due to their sexual orientation or gender identity comprised 1,470 — or nearly 17 percent — of all victims.”
According to that same study, hate crimes against members of the LGBTQ community have been on a rise since 2014.
Pride Month was created as a way to make members of the community feel safe. As a way for members of each portion of the LGBTQ world feel included and understood – as a way for them to escape the prejudices and violence they face on a far too regular basis.
This so-called “Straight Pride” movement trivializes the trials and tribulations that the LGBTQ community is up against. Straight people are quite literally never the target of violence for wanting to love who they love or for trying to live a truer version of their lives.
In Boston, where the first Straight Pride was held, the founding organization Super Happy Fun America, stated in an article written by the New York Times that their parade was not intended to be “anti-gay or to mock the LGBT Pride.”
The fact of the matter is the very notion that heterosexual people need a reason to celebrate their heterosexuality makes a mockery of LGBTQ Pride.
The origin of Pride Month and the Gay Rights Movement as a whole began in 1969 when the police arrived at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. At this time, men could be arrested for dressing in drag and being gay was considered “sodomy.” When the police arrived that night, the occupants of the bar did not sit back and allow themselves to be arrested for being themselves – they fought back.
Pride Month is more than just rainbow floats and Drag Queens lip-syncing for their lives. It’s an opportunity to do what those at Stonewall couldn’t do: be themselves without shame or fear of retaliation.
Straight Pride is an opportunity for what? Celebrate the fact that straight people never have to worry about prejudice being brought against them for being straight?
The truth is, being who we are is absolutely worth celebrating. Gay or straight, binary or non-binary, but the root of some celebrations are more worthy than others.
