Pride Month is that time of year where the LGBTQ+ community comes together and celebrates all the accomplishments they made throughout history and the plans they make for the future of the community. As a queer woman myself, Pride holds a special place in my heart and I can't wait to make my contribution to such amazing history. However, like every big activism event, Pride also has its fair share of bad eggs that forget what Pride is all about, and too many people tend to ignore them.
So, with June approaching its end, it's time to talk about the problematic parts of Pride month.
The first thing I want to talk about is the exclusionists and those who erase other LGBTQ+ identities out of Pride. I identify as pansexual, which means I would be attracted to someone regardless of biological sex or gender identity, and I have seen so many LGBTQ+ elitists that exclude bisexuals, pansexuals, asexuals, demisexuals, and even transgenders and nonbinary/gender non-conforming people. I have seen many people who consider bi, pan, and demisexuals "fake" or "attention-whores" because they are in a relationship with someone of the opposite sex, along with people who consider transgenders "wolves in sheep's clothing" or nonbinary/gender non-conforming people "invalid."
None of this sits well with me because being part of this community is about the inclusion of all who identify with the community, and excluding others throws off what being part of the LGBTQ+ community is all about.
Another part of Pride that tends to get on my nerves is the straight and cisgendered "allies" who use Pride as an excuse to get drunk with their friends and do not know about the history of Pride.
Before I continue with this one, I want to be clear that our allies who give us support and don't talk over us are great, and they do make Pride a pleasant experience.
The "allies" who do talk over us, on the other hand, are a different story. They tend to not realize that Pride is held every June to commemorate the Stonewall Riots of 1969, which was started by trans people of color. At the time, most states had laws banning LGBTQ+ people from assembling in groups, and at its peak, over 1,000 people took to the streets of Greenwich Village in one of the first organized LGBTQ+ protests in history.
Many of the most problematic parts of Pride month is not just the people who go overboard themselves, but also the bigger corporations that slap on rainbows on every piece of merchandise they can without doing any actual activism or donating to any LGBTQ+ charities. While there are many corporations that are known for doing this, the most well-known example of this is when Facebook puts rainbows on all their posts throughout the month of June, but still forces their transgender users to use their dead-names and dead pronouns (another example of transgender exclusion) and reporting and taking down posts that call out TERFs (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists).
As you can tell, while Pride month is a great time for the LGBTQ+ community to commemorate their history and celebrate their accomplishments, many people also have to be careful not to step into the territory of the more problematic people that are often involved in Pride every year. Regardless of the bad eggs in the community, Pride still has a great history to it and I highly recommend anyone that is everyone learns more about the Stonewall Riots and the history about how Pride month came to be. And while you're at it, I also recommend everyone to support smaller and more local Pride events in your area as well.
