Trigger Warning - contains images of bullying and attempted suicide. that said, it's a kick-ass song.
pride month can be a mixed bag. on one hand, you feel the love of your community - straight, gay, inbetween - allies and friends and fellow queers. it's a month of celebrating who you are. a lot of people find the courage to come out in june or to just be themselves in public for the first time. it's a beautiful and joyous things.
the flip side...
June is also the month when the haters and bigots feel the need to get louder, to get more in your face, to "fight back" againt the "queer agenda". you feel that as well. some of you may heard this story before, but i'll tell it any way. 1998 was the year i figured out i liked girls was the same year that Matthew Shepard was found on the side of a road after being beaten and tortured and left for dead. he died 6 days later. not only did i discover that i liked girls, but i discovered that there were people out there who would kill me because of something i had no control over. i was faced with a choice. shut my mouth and pretend i was straight, or not... it wasn't an easy choice, but i think you all know what i chose...
Pride is not just a celebration. it is a remembrance. the first pride parade took place a year after the Stonewall riots in memory of the event. armed with a warrant, police officers entered the club, roughed up patrons, and, finding bootlegged alcohol, arrested 13 people, including employees and people violating the state’s gender-appropriate clothing statute (female officers would take suspected cross-dressing patrons into the bathroom to check their sex).
fed up with constant police harassment and social discrimination, angry patrons and neighborhood residents hung around outside of the bar rather than disperse, becoming increasingly agitated as the events unfolded and people were aggressively manhandled. at one point, an officer hit a lesbian over the head as he forced her into the police van— she shouted to onlookers to act, inciting the crowd to begin throw pennies, bottles, cobble stones and other objects at the police...
that was the beginning of a long fight for LGBTQIA+ rights that continues to this very day. a lot of things have changed for the better, but it's still a struggle. there is still a lot of hate, a lot of discrimination, a lot of violence against gays out there...
Gwen Amber Rose Araujo was 17 years old when she was murdered in 2002. she lived in Newark, CA, about half an hour's drive from where i grew up. her crime? She was trans. my best friend growing up was a gorgeous black man - JC. he came out as gay a few years before i did. and then he came out as trans. he, too, is gone. it still breaks my heart.
i just really want to say to everyone here who supports LGBTQIA+ people, thank you. i might not seem like that big a deal, but it is. being accepting, being supportive, being allies is huge. so yeah, thank you very much...
tomorrow is Pride in the Park in Seattle. Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill. It should be fun. Kate had a hand in helping organize it - not a huge hand, as she'll say, but her fingerprints are there. music, drag queens, vendors... it's a sad sign of the times that i am considering carrying. considering, but i think that i'm going to resist the temptation.
oh, and yes, there WILL be a performance of Disney songs by Supertonics - fuck you, Desantis. 
