Well folks, Pride month is here!
There are a few things I'd love to clear up for those who believe that Pride itself isn't necessary, let alone a month to celebrate it.
First up, the myth that Pride celebrations' only purpose is to rub queer relationships, queer existence in your face.
Celebrating the queer community is absolutely necessary, and will remain so for as long as there are people who want to treat those in the community as 'less than.'
For as long as there are people who want to say derogatory things, call demeaning names, tell cruel jokes, treat people with disrespect, discriminate, withhold healthcare, refuse services, or so much as give subtle side-eye, it is necessary.
If you don't want Pride Month to have to exist, evolve already. The rest of us are tired of waiting for you.
Secondly, we need to celebrate everyone who is undervalued. Any swath of humanity that has been, or is currently being oppressed, if steps are being made to control them or deprive them of basic rights, if they are being targeted in any negative way for simply trying to live like every person of privilege, absolutely needs to be pumped up, supported and celebrated. We need to, so they know in their souls that they matter just as much as everyone else. Cheers need to be louder, longer, and filled with a sincerity strong enough to be a soul-filling antidote to all of the poison that is thrown at them.
Thirdly, true acceptance and inclusion are concepts that are long overdue. Good people are good people, regardless of what pronouns they choose, no matter their biology, no matter who they love (as long as they are of age, and consenting), no matter how they dress, the hobbies they have, if they do or don't wear make-up, none of that determines character. How you treat people does that. It's been my personal experience with the people I've met that are a part of the queer community, or other oppressed groups, really, show a bigger tendency and capacity for empathy and compassion because of how they've been treated.
Fourthly, the queer community has a right to exist, survive, and thrive. They need to be allowed to live in peace to love, marry if they choose, become parents if they choose, wear what they choose, be called what they choose, all of it, without hindrance. It's not hard.
So those who want to rant and rave about rainbow crosswalks, flags, hell, rainbows in general, just grow up. It's okay to change your mind. It's okay to change your heart. It's okay to change.
For those who choose o use religion as their weapon of choice when it comes to the queer community, check yourself.
If the God you pray to would encourage, hell, require, treating others with cruelty, exclusion, judgment, disdain, repression, depriving them of marriage and parenthood, all to earn a ticket to his paradise, I'd rethink.
If God truly is love, it doesn't come with caveats. He didn't create these beautiful humans to be targets of your disdain.
If your religion requires you to exclude others, find a new religion.
If your religion believes it has all, and the only correct answers when it comes to faith, find a new religion.
If your religion asks you to disown, punish, or look down upon a loved one because they belong to the queer community, find another religion.
You see, when I think of some omnipotent being in charge of all things, what comes to mind is not an image of some white, straight guy with a beard. In my mind, they are a fabulous being full of colour, light and love. Gone are the fire and brimstone, the threats of damnation, all the talk of being born with strikes against us. I imagine a being that embraces all that they created with equal enthusiasm. That encourages kindness for kindness's sake, one that rewards it here on earth. A being that wants us to be gentle and generous of spirit because it's the right thing to do, not to stay on their good side. A being that allows hardships to show lessons to help us grow, not as some cruel punishment. A being incapable of cruelty for punishment's sake.
Folks, Rainbows aren't scary. They aren't coming for you. They aren't after you. And no,they aren't trying to indoctrinate your children. Rainbows have been part of earth since there's been an earth, and so have all who live within it's colours.
Relax. Someone else getting married, or wearing clothes they like, becoming parents, or changing their name affects you not even in the slightest.
Rainbows aren't scary, no matter who tries to convince you otherwise.
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