Happy Pride!!

It is Pride Week!! The best week of the summer, it is like Christmas for us Homo's. The week is packed full of fun events. Last night I went to Gay Latte. It is a poetry reading held at a book store. The book store makes a special 'Gay Latte' for the night. It was great to hear the poetry being read. All the writers had a similar energy. They all read a poem about a lover, and one about how they have been hurt by homophobia. This was not planned by the readers. It just shows how alive homophobia is today, and how much it affects every single Queer person.

Pride Week is about celebrating our love, ourselves, and our family. Yet remember how much work there is to be done to make the world a safer place for us. It is about remembering our family that didn't make, because of how cruel this world is.
Pride is for Lawrence King, the boy who was shot in the face last year by a classmate for writing him a love letter. It is for the friendless teenager who every day at school is called a Faggot, and walks home wondering what the point is to living.
Queer teens are 4 times more likely to attempt suicide, with trans numbers even higher then that.
But Pride is not a sad time, it is a time to honour how far we have come. It is about honouring how hard we worked to get to the point where we are now.
Though it is not anywhere near-perfect.
When I march in the parade, I thank the drag queen who started this. Gay Pride started 40 years ago at the Stonewall Riot. The cops used to raid gay bars and arrest everyone inside, because being gay was against the law. There are videos of these raids, and they are one of the most painful things for me to watch. We hang our heads in shame of who we are in those videos, as we are stuffed into the back of a police bus. We should never, never, be ashamed of who we are. One night we decided it was enough. We were not going to be treated like that anymore. So we fought back, a drag queen threw the first punch, and we rioted in the streets for 3 days. It was a signal of hope that stretched across the world. We don't have to sit and take it, we can fight back and demand proper treatment.
Now we do. In Canada. But trans people are still not protected by the law, lots of work needs to be done so the trans community can be equal citizens.
When one of us is being hurt, we are all being hurt.

Often I hear people saying that we should not get a Pride Week. That we are flaunting our 'gayness', and drawing attention to ourselves.
To answer that I say we need attention brought to some aspects of our lifestyle. We need to educate, and stress certain facts to people who are unaware of them. We need people to understand that we are twice as likely to be physically attacked. We need attention so that things can change. As comfortable as it is for you to have us in the closest, hidden away, there isn't much room to grow and flourish in there. You won't put us back into the closet.
As for flaunting our gayness, to that I say Fuck You. Really. This comment comes from straight people who everyday sit around and openly talk about their love life, and have it be completely accepted. Most Queer people can't do that, because of how straight people react. Everyday we are censored. During Pride week we are completely ourselves, we celebrate our love and we will not censor it to make you comfortable.

Your homework for the week is to be as flaming as possible. Burn so brightly that your flame warms the palms of Jesus. Go show others the light, my children. Be proud of who are you.

Happy Pride!

Let's all have a beautiful week full of love, happiness, and PRIDE!