“When you hear of Gay Pride, remember, it was not born out of a need to celebrate being gay. It evolved out of our need as human beings to break free of oppression and to exist without being criminalized, pathologized or persecuted. Depending on a number of factors, particularly religion, freeing ourselves from gay shame and coming to self-love and acceptance, can not only be an agonising journey, it can take years. Tragically some don’t make it. Instead of wondering why there isn’t a straight pride be grateful you have never needed one.
Celebrate with us.” ~ Anthony Venn-Brown
With Pride Month in full swing, and a large number of Pride events happenings as the vaccinated among us move more freely than we have in well over a year, I’m taking a moment to be both serious and silly about this special month. Hence these photos, taken so I could update my social media profiles with something more seasonally gay.
Next weekend is when some of the main Pride events are happening in Boston, including Pride Night at Fenway Park with the Red Sox. More often than not, Skip and I would find ourselves there for such an event, and it always thrilled me to see the rainbow flags flying at Fenway and on the Boston Public Library. While we mostly skirted the big parade (we did it properly once) it was good simply to be in town for such celebratory fun. Boston enjoys an electric-like excitement in June, whether from the residual glow of graduations, or the exuberant arrival of summer, or probably a bit of both – and it’s sort of a glorious finale right before the city seeps into its sleepy summer slumber (which I tend to appreciate even more).
On the serious side, all the rainbows and unicorns and fluffy party scenes mask the heartache of the history that we in the LGBTQ+ community have endured and survived – and it’s worth a moment to recognize and remember the many of us who didn’t make it this far. It’s also worth challenging ourselves in analyzing the privilege and distinctions among intersectional groups and individuals within our widely-varied community. We are making progress, but this is a long journey, and it’s largely in its infancy. Let’s keep going, and growing, and learning.
“As a young gay African, I have been conditioned from an early age to consider my sexuality a dangerous deviation from my true heritage as a Somali by close kin and friends. As a young gay African coming of age in London, there was another whiplash of cultural confusion that one had to recover from again and again: that accepting your sexual identity doesn’t necessarily mean that the wider LGBT community, with its own preconceived notions of what constitutes a “valid” queer identity, will embrace you any more welcomingly than your own prejudiced kinsfolk do.” ~ Diriye Osman
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