The Keystone Student Voice celebrates June 2012 as LGBTQ Pride Month by hosting a compilation of personal essays written by students/youth across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on what “pride” means to them.
Stepping off of my train into the city, lugging my bags down the street and clumsily dropping one on my toe as I stumbled over myself, I stopped in my tracks for a brief moment to catch my breath before finally looking upward to see something pleasantly unexpected. Towering above my head was a scrolling text advertisement displayed from a skyscraper that advertised June as “Philadelphia LGBT Pride Month” – with the lettering decked-out in all things rainbow, of course. On a personal level, the in-your-face neon colors seemed a bit much for my taste, but beyond that existed a heartwarming realization that progress has in fact been made.
Having just come from a visit to my hometown, a loud and proud member of the “conservative T,” I was instantly reminded of the stark contrasts to be made in a state that is as diverse as it is culturally schizophrenic. To the far east and far west, we have bustling urban centers that – for the most part – are welcoming to LGBTQ life and frown upon acts of discrimination and intolerance. Philadelphia boasts anti-discrimination laws that are few and far in between in the commonwealth, and Pittsburgh touts its own set of municipal laws that come to the aid of LGBTQ individuals, albeit like a knight in dull, somewhat rustic armor bought for a bargain at a thrift store. Not perfect protection, but there nonetheless, and leading the pack as inspiring examples for the less progressive areas to be encountered in the rest of the state.
But more to the point, I found that, standing on the street in the gayest clothes to be found at H&M and sporting a fabulous new haircut, I actually was proud. Proud to feel at home in a city that is placed like an aimless dart in the surroundings of a largely homophobic region when viewed from the grander northeastern perspective, and proud to see that – Philadelphia, at least – does not treat its Pride event as something “hush, hush” or unwelcome in the community. This, for me, was an overwhelming new feeling.
Pride events have come quite a long way in the last few decades – what I remember as a child being broadcast by the nightly news as “protests” or “marches,” now thrive as meetings of great minds and bodies in the LGBTQ community, serving as a means of celebration rather than a shake of the fist to “the man.” But perhaps that is the biggest difference between what Pride means to someone like me, and what it may mean to a less embracing individual watching from a distance and baselessly analyzing the LGBTQ community like a group of ants clustered under a microscope on a hot, sunny day.
Contemporarily, we view our Pride events as a way of rejoicing and enjoying our progress, expressing our own culture in a very public way and living our lives as entirely free and uninhibited individuals for a single day, with the hope of using this same attitude as a foundation for our lives in the future. We drink, we don our drag get-ups, and dance until our legs go numb and we collapse. Essentially, it’s St. Patrick’s Day for gay people.
Yet our skeptics insist that we protest, disrupt and obnoxiously flaunt our “alternative lifestyles.”
It seems, however, that this is quite the opposite. Pride events no longer are organized as advertisements for equal rights, or at least not directly so. We celebrate with the intention of others taking notice and joining in on the festivities, but we do not aim to convert, brainwash children, nor push forward a far-left agenda that right-wingers continue to suggest we stand for. We merely celebrate as a reminder to the world that we are in fact perfectly equal human beings with nothing to be ashamed of.
We commemorate our Pride events this year with the same passion we draw from as LGBTQ individuals during the other 364 days of the year, channeling all of the feelings of positive energy from these days, injecting them with steroids and unleashing them for a day of extravagant festivities and pure joy. I will undoubtedly see a slew of “haters” and no-fun killjoys holding signs with derogatory labels and senseless words of judgment when Philadelphia’s June 10 Pride Day rolls around, but I will simultaneously remember that for every bigot with a yard sign in the world, there are hundreds, thousands – millions, perhaps, more people with loving hearts that stand up for LGBTQ pride and the wholesome values it really represents.
This reflection was written by Brandon Baker, director of communications for PSEC and student at Temple University. Brandon can be reached at bbaker@pennsec.org.