Pride Month: Why we have it and why it is necessary (Kruggel)

June 1st marks the beginning of Pride Month. Just to clarify, Pride Month isn't an official holiday season. You don't get a day off or overtime or anything like that. Governments may kick in a few dollars sponsoring a parade or event or providing crowd control. They do that for many large events. 

 

Some ask why not have a month for veterans? After all, they actually did something. Well, that's fine. You don't have to pit veterans against LGBTQ+ people. You can be petty and overlap them or you can be accommodating and have them separate. 

 

By the way, most of us get Remembrance Day off as a paid holiday. Trust me, those pushing a month for veterans are the same ones that sleep in on November 11th, and go shopping in the afternoon.

Why do we have a Pride Month? 

 

The main reason is that Pride isn't organized nationally. Communities individually decide when they have a parade and or events. Some might do it in June like mine does. Some do it in July. A few even do it in August. The majority do it in June. Everyone uses June as a time for outreach and education. 

 

That is the logistics. 

 

The reason for the month, and Pride, is that LGBTQ+ people still face judgement and prejudice in public life. They should not have to face that. 

 

A heterosexual couple in Canada doesn't think twice about holding hands in public. A same-sex couple does. They have to consider where they are it, and the people around them. They have to determine if it is going to be tolerated and safe. Even if it is safe, they have to weigh the possibility that people will stare and gawk at them. Will they suddenly become the subject of whispered discussions?

 

Detractors will say you have the same rights as everyone else so enough with this silly Pride thing!

 

Well, that's not entirely true. LGBTQ+ people still face discrimination on a regular basis. There are people that will try to deny them a rental application to a building. There are people that will try to fire them from a job upon finding out they are LGBTQ+ or will avoid hiring them in the first place. That still goes on. There has been a rise in anti-LGBTQ+ crimes including violent crimes over the last few years fueled by the anti-trans movement. 

 

Having legal rights on paper doesn't mean they are automatically there. Take women. Women are legally equal to men. Yet, the gender pay gap still exists. While it is shrinking women are still earning only about 80% on average that of their male colleagues when doing the exact same jobs. That's illegal. It still happens and women frequently have to fight it in the courts. 

 

LGBTQ+ people have to fight for their rights in the same fashion. 

 

Some people have argued for a Heterosexual Pride Day. I actually saw some of these activists in the late 1990s doing just that. I think that's fine. But here's the reality: you are incredibly fortunate that you don't require a Heterosexual Pride Day. No one is actively discriminating against you. You're family model is celebrated by society. When you are heterosexual you are near the pinnacle of privilege. I would say be grateful that the struggle for identity and to be accepted isn't one you have to fight.

 

Pride isn't just about the struggle for acceptance for LGBTQ+ people in Canada. It is also to raise awareness for LGBTQ+ people around the world. While Canada is relatively safe most countries are not. Much of Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia including Russia, and even parts of Central and South America are very unsafe fro LGBTQ+ people. In some countries homosexuality is still a crime and can be punished with anything from a fine to imprisonment to death. There is no country in the world where they put one to death for being heterosexual.

 

Even the United States is under travel warnings for states like Florida, Texas, Georgia, Idaho, Ohio, Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana. There transgender people, in particular, face additional scrutiny and legal restrictions. The local populations are considered unfriendly and hostile. 

 

Think about that for a second. That a state in America, any state, let alone a few, is considered unsafe for LGBTQ+ people to travel to should raise a few eyebrows.

Rather than progressing as a species on personal freedoms and liberty we are seeing signs of regression in many parts of the world.

 

Let me be clear on something: the rights of LGBTQ+ people are also the rights of non-LGBTQ+ people. The right to marry who you love is fundamental. If it can be taken away from us, it can be taken from you. If we can be discriminated against, so can you. It might be for your religion. It might be for your ethnicity. It might be because you have an accent. 

 

If you want to end Pride and Pride Month here is how you do it. End the unequal treatment of LGBTQ+ people in society. That's it. That's all you have to do. When begin gay, or bisexual, or transgender, or whatever is just accepted and no big deal then Pride will go away on its own.

 

I think that would be a great day. A world where being LGBTQ+ isn't a thing. It just is. And no one would care would be wonderful.