We're Queer... But Are We Here?
Today was the big Gay Pride Festival in Centennial Park. Our very own Ronda and Jonda and 3 AM were on the headline stage and put on fantastic shows. We were very proud to be a part of this event.
Yet every year, one thing strikes me about Gay Pride. It resembles Church on Christmas Eve or Easter. You see people you very rarely see. People who come out once every blue moon. People who keep their GLBT-ness to themselves most of the time. It stymies me.
Oh, they're out of the closet perhaps. But they're not active in the community. They're not attending HRC meetings, or participating in the Tennessee Equality Project. They're not talking to their less open-minded friends about issues that resonate in the lives of GLBT Americans every day. They patronize gay-unfriendly businesses. They don't support the people who support them and are fighting for them. And that's not what I call "gay pride." That's a gay shame.
What's the point of only being proud of your identity the first Saturday in June? Yes, it's great that 13,000 people come out to Pride, but if the very next day 12,000 of them go back to being ashamed, then what have we accomplished?
And while, yes, it is all about having a good time, this is a very crucial time for the GLBT community. The Federal Government is trying to write discrimination into the Constitution. South Dakota is making abortions nearly illegal. Florida is taking adopted children away from gay parents.
And here in Tennessee, Proposition 1 is threatening to cement the existing marriage law by defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman directly in State Constitution. This amendment has no applicable change in our daily lives— Tennessee state law already bans gay marriage— but it would symbolically lock down the definition of marriage and make it difficult for future GLBT generations to overturn the already unfair law. We have to work hard to defeat Prop 1, and spread the word, or else we deserve the pawns of intolerance and fear will continue stripping the GLBT community of our basic rights that Jefferson delineated for us in the Declaration of Independence: the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Learn all you can about this issue, and convince your friends to get active in the community and defeat Proposition 1.
Gay pride ought to be your watchword every day. See you at the Lounge.
Peace,
Tom
Yet every year, one thing strikes me about Gay Pride. It resembles Church on Christmas Eve or Easter. You see people you very rarely see. People who come out once every blue moon. People who keep their GLBT-ness to themselves most of the time. It stymies me.
Oh, they're out of the closet perhaps. But they're not active in the community. They're not attending HRC meetings, or participating in the Tennessee Equality Project. They're not talking to their less open-minded friends about issues that resonate in the lives of GLBT Americans every day. They patronize gay-unfriendly businesses. They don't support the people who support them and are fighting for them. And that's not what I call "gay pride." That's a gay shame.
What's the point of only being proud of your identity the first Saturday in June? Yes, it's great that 13,000 people come out to Pride, but if the very next day 12,000 of them go back to being ashamed, then what have we accomplished?
And while, yes, it is all about having a good time, this is a very crucial time for the GLBT community. The Federal Government is trying to write discrimination into the Constitution. South Dakota is making abortions nearly illegal. Florida is taking adopted children away from gay parents.
And here in Tennessee, Proposition 1 is threatening to cement the existing marriage law by defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman directly in State Constitution. This amendment has no applicable change in our daily lives— Tennessee state law already bans gay marriage— but it would symbolically lock down the definition of marriage and make it difficult for future GLBT generations to overturn the already unfair law. We have to work hard to defeat Prop 1, and spread the word, or else we deserve the pawns of intolerance and fear will continue stripping the GLBT community of our basic rights that Jefferson delineated for us in the Declaration of Independence: the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Learn all you can about this issue, and convince your friends to get active in the community and defeat Proposition 1.
Gay pride ought to be your watchword every day. See you at the Lounge.
Peace,
Tom
posted by Thomas Horton at 3:11 PM
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