My Annual Pride Rant

Pride Weekend is upon us once again, which means that it’s time for my annual rant about how I’m over Pride. Some have taken that to mean that I have no pride in the gay community. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. I’m extremely happy and proud of who I am and the community that I am a part of. What bothers me about Pride, and about gay culture in general, is the image- and sex-obsessed nature of both. It’s nothing conscious and most people would be hard pressed to find an incidence of it, but the messages constantly sent gay individuals — you have to look a certain way, you have to be interested in certain things, you have to behave in a certain way, etc. — are just as insidious as the message of the dominant culture telling us to act straight.

Yes, Pride is important to show that we are strong as a community, that we will no longer hide in the shadows, and that our quest for equal rights is far from over. I just wish that we would take time to do some self-reflection and realize that the community may be sending the wrong messages. And those messages may end up excluding the people who most need to feel a sense of community.