I am going to begin this article by relating my opinion of homosexuality. I am not homosexual and could not hope to understand homosexuality, therefore I will not comment on whether it is right or wrong. It is not my cup of tea. In saying that it is not my cup of tea, I mean just that. For those of you who read that and assumed I am against homosexuality… you have done yourself a disservice. We are all human beings and created equal, after all. If I am being totally honest, I do not care at all whether someone decides (or finds out) they are interested in their own sex. People are different, we don’t need to hide our differences... we also have no need to celebrate them.
What I would like to oppose, however, is that there is a striking double standard at play when we invoke gay pride. The double standard is this: A gay man walks in parade proclaiming how wonderful it is to be gay and our culture sees it as beautiful and enlightening. A straight man mentions on social media that he is proud to be straight and our culture sees it as an act of violent abuse toward homosexuality and that the culprit must be a backwards thinking prude incapable of love (this is an exaggeration, of course).
Where we have landed is that supporting gay pride makes you a hero (even if you are, in fact, straight). On the other hand, if you mention pride in being heterosexual, you are often vilified by the freedom fighters I mentioned above.
It is no secret that gay people have been the victims of atrocities throughout history. The pride parades were engineered to show the world they would be victims no longer. If the strife on the subject of homosexuality has been -- for the grand majority -- resolved, there should be no offense in a straight man or woman celebrating their straightness. Unfortunately, it would seem that gay pride has more fire than ever and straight pride is a dangerous notion.
In the true spirit of equality, there should be two parades. One gay parade firing rainbows through the air while walking toward one straight parade carrying some sort of symbol for straightness (a straight line I suppose) and when they meet, the two parades high five and co-mingle. Sadly, if a straight parade ever had the courage to form and march in the direction of a gay parade the result would be different. Every member of the straight parade would be slandered and disbanded immediately and the media would cover how the gay parade had prevailed over more controversy.
This double standard is seen among race and gender as well. As a straight white male, I have no upper hand when it comes to expressing my pride of that fact. I will share that I am proud to be open-minded and indiscriminate to soften the blow. If I have offended anyone, please comment.
