I’ve never been a fan of parades. For one, I’m only 5′2″ and can never see the floats and marching groups from behind that Really Tall Guy Who Always Stands In Front Of Me. Plus I don’t care for large crowds. But every year I make an exception for the gay pride parade, because it’s different. We’re not celebrating civic pride, we’re celebrating being ok with ourselves in spite of everything we may experience. We’re celebrating overcoming adversity, being people like everyone else, being a community for one weekend a year where we all come together regardless of what’s going on in our lives.
I attended and marched in my first Pride Parade in 1996, elated to be amongst people like me – and terrified that my parents would find out. The experience of being normal, part of the majority for a day, was awesome. For one day, I can walk out in a crowd and I don’t have to worry about what people think if I hold my wife’s hand or that out of the blue someone will yell at me or worse (a rare occurrence in liberal Portland). I’ve got it pretty good, living in a city where people are decent, but not everyone is that lucky. Pride reminds me that there are people just like me who fear for their lives every day, and that we need to fight to make them safe.
13 years later, I still love my community and love that my parents attended my wedding and supported my marriage to a wonderful woman last fall. But with all that I’ve gained and all that has changed for my family in the last decade and more, we still have a long way to go. I now dream of the day when I can be truly legally married and nobody fights to stop me from having the equality most people enjoy freely. I dream of the day when nobody cares if you’re gay or straight or whatever you happen to be. I just want to be what everyone else seems to take for granted. Normal. Accepted. Respected. Safe. Equal.
But until that day, we need Pride Parades. They remind us of who we are, what we can be, and what we will be as long as we stick together and support each other. So get out there – gay or straight – and clap and cheer, because that high school GLBT group, the PFLAG parents, and even the zany drag queens need you. And frankly, the whole community needs you, too.
AMEN!
Awesome.