During the month of June each year, Pride Month descends upon us and a marginalized group gets to have fun and be recognized by their own corner of the world along with corporations who now see them as a profitable enough demographic to sell wares to them specifically. Pride Month comes through just like Black History Month, Halloween, and Christmas. And just like the aforementioned times of year, it comes with its detractors. Black History Month has white people calling for white history month, Halloween gets the super religious up in arms for being satanic and Christmas has people swearing it’s being attacked. So in the spirit of those that look at strictly negatively reacting to positive things, I have a few words…
Shut the fuck up.
White history month doesn’t need to be a thing because the majority of North American history is based around telling the tales of how white people reshaped an existing country into their own vision while getting to whitewash the dirty parts. Halloween and Christmas are so commercialized to the point that the first is as satanic as an M&M’s commercial and the second is ingrained in this country to the point that every business counts on it for time off and sales. It’s hard to attack an institution that no one is actively trying to topple. This brings me to Pride.
While rainbow capitalism has become the way to pander to the LGBTQ+ dollar, that level of acceptance has been hard fought for over the years. The stories are out there for all of us to research but for those who don’t know, Pride didn’t come to pass because the community decided to come out with an ‘agenda’ to destroy the ‘straight’ way of life. Pride itself is the direct result of the Stonewall Riots in 1969 where the police came to raid a gay establishment and incited melee that resulted in buildings being burned, bricks being thrown, and gay and trans people fighting for their rights over three hellish days in New York. They were being oppressed and literally fought to overcome this. This was not a peaceful event, this was change brought on with literal fire. The following year and going forward marked the anniversary of that hard fought battle and a shift in perception for them. Lives were changed permanently and for all that happened during those days and nights in June 1969, yes, a celebration is in order for those that are oppressed.
So when something like a ‘straight pride’ parade is mentioned, I get angry, even as a straight person. As a Black man I do have worries going about in my day to day life but none of them have come about because I date women. I’ve been threatened and called racial slurs as well as been profiled by police and others, but no one is ever yelling at me because I’ve held hands with a woman. I don’t feel threatened because of the gender of the person I’m with. I don’t have to be ashamed or hide from my family because I’m cis gendered and heterosexual because that’s the status quo. There is no such thing as ‘straight oppression.’ Heterosexual people FAR outnumber the LGBTQ+ population and, honestly, parts of men and women are needed to reproduce human life so it’s not like we’re going anywhere because gay people exist.
Matthew Shepard, on the other hand, had to worry and was killed for being who he was in 1998. Type the phrase “Killed for being gay” in your search engine and you’ll find entries from Wikipedia that read History of violence against LGBE people in the United States and Significant acts of violence against LGBT people, along with countless news articles and think pieces about missing Black trans women, assaulted lesbian couples, teens who’ve committed suicide due to harassment for being LGBT, and murders of community members just for living. It’s heartbreaking to know that we have people who are in danger of dying just for being alive in the skin they’re in and being who they were born to be. You don’t get those results on “killed for being straight.” You don’t get anything like that at all. Do you hear that scared heterosexuals?! No one is threatening your life for being who you are! You’re already the control group and literally controls everything else. Pride is for those who are being told every day that they’re not supposed to be here. That are shunned and may not be accepted by family members or just the general public. That are out and trying to raise families, be single and make everyday decisions while also being told they’re not normal. Pride month is for those that are trying to reap the benefits of those that literally fought the establishment in order to walk out in public and not be arrested. Again, this freedom came with fire, bricks and blood. Who oppressed straight people? I’m waiting for an answer.
And really, I’m not surprised. Blue/All Lives Matter was created, not because there was a threat against them, but as a reaction to the fact that Black Lives Matter had a point and they wanted them to shut up. Blue/All Lives Matter doesn’t exist without BLM and BLM doesn’t want to exist but is necessary because of oppression from the “blue” lives (which isn’t a thing.) A boycott was started against Chick-Fil-A because people caught on about the fact that they donate millions to anti-LGBT legislation and groups. So what happened as a result? Mike Huckabee started an Appreciation Day for Chick-Fil-A to get more people to give them money…basically to insure they would continue to keep those anti-gay dollars rolling in. (Fuck Chick-Fil-A and Mike Huckabee while I’m here.) And now we have the ‘straight pride’ parade; a celebration that wasn’t earned, that celebrates nothing and is a negative reaction to a positive movement.
Well, I know which Pride parade this straight man is going to this month and it’ll be the one with rainbows and acceptance. Straight people have enough damn people on our side so I think I’ll stand with those that could use a little help from their friends.
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