I often see references, largely from outside the LGBTQ community, questioning the need for Pride and/or Pride Month. In response, the countless LGBTQ young people come to mind who are coming of age and self-questioning, often in environments that aren’t supportive of this part of them. Unlike more outwardly visible minorities, our expression of who we are and our ability to recognize others and community are very largely dependent on our collective visibility. Seeing our vast and diverse community helps folks know they belong and where that community can be found.
And, even in an age when there’s more outward visibility and equality than ever before, those factors don’t often reflect the challenge so many of us have being in alignment with our inherent wholeness. Countless of us still deal with internal messaging about our value which we may not attribute to that early LGBTQ conditioning but which is nonetheless an offshoot of it.
To this day, if I’m dating someone and about to engage in a public kiss, I reflexively check my surroundings. My survivalist caution about the potential existence of a bat, even if mostly nonsensical today, was deeply conditioned long ago. The experience of Pride — and our collective recognition and uniting around it — helps us in countless ways.
