I am going to start this off by saying that you already know you've done something wrong. You know you've done something wrong because you posted this message under a pseudonym because you didn't want people to know who actually posted this. But I'm going to explain to you, step by step, why this is wrong anyway.
Because, darling, there are many things that have upset me in the years that I've been on this earth.
Firstly, I would like to say that there is nothing wrong with being proud of who you are. If you're straight, that's great. Congrats! I hope you live a long, happy, contented life with a partner who you can be yourself with. Maybe don't have a partner at all if you're happy with that. But if you're straight, you deserve a good life just like anyone else, and you deserve to be happy that you're straight, and live out relationships as a straight person, and be safe and proud of your identity.
But here's the thing.
A lot of queer people can't do that. A lot of queer people are attacked every day for being who they are - by their family, by their community, by random people on the street. Some live in fear of expressing themselves. Other can't come to terms with who they are because they're afraid to, or because they've been trained to think that who they are is wrong, and terrible. Many queer people do not live out long, happy, contented lives. They live out short, miserable, unfinished ones full of questions and self-hatred and malice.
That's the first thing. I'm sure you already knew that.
But here's the thing. I'm not here to play the oppression games with you. What I'm here to explain is why posting that comment HERE was a bad idea.
Pride Month takes place in June on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which were the starting place for the queer rights movement that began in the late 60s and is still happening today. Pride Month, however, is not a battle, and it's not a movement. It's a celebration. It's a celebration for queer people all over the world who constantly feel ostracized and hated simply because of who they are. It's a time when they can ignore the prejudice thrown at them and celebrate themselves and their identities, rejoice in their differences and show them to the world in a message that not only are they not afraid, they are proud of who they are, and nothing can take that away from them.
Straight (and cis) people don't know what that feels like.
They don't know what it feels like to live in fear of having people know who you truly are. In which every day is a struggle between staying in the closet and telling the truth. Fighting for your safety, learning to judge which people you can trust. And then having a chance to break free of that, to know, for once, that you are you, and you are beautiful.
Posting #straightpride on a thread dedicated to that feels like an attack.
I'm in the closet. I have been for years. I'm faced with insecurity and doubt about myself and my identity. I have it a lot better than so many people. But every day, still, I find myself making choices. About what to reveal, what not to reveal, to who, when. You don't really understand how much a secret can permeate into every aspect of your daily life until you're carrying one.
So Pride means a lot to me.
#straightpride is not a movement to be proud of being straight. If it is, it's already happening, 365 days a year. #straightpride was created in backlash. Because the queer community can't have something just for ourselves. We need to share with the very people who made us feel like we needed something for ourselves in the first place.
Posting #straightpride in a thread dedicated to Pride Month is like talking about how proud you are to be white in a serious conversation about racism. It's not taking pride in yourself. It's trying to attack other peoples' pride. You're taking something away from us that we've fought so hard to have.
And I'll be honest: seeing this comment here? It hurt.
I felt betrayed. Pride is a safe space. Pride is a place where I can be me. But apparently I can't, because people will still find a way to infiltrate, to force me to close up, to doubt who I am and if I can be safe expressing that.
Please understand the implications of what you've said. Please understand that you're hurting people by saying it. Please understand that #straightpride is not actually straight pride - it's homophobia. And it does affect people.
I hope you can understand.
0
submitted by St.Owl, space ace (June 16, 2019 - 10:37 pm)
I have to disagree, St. I understand your point, but what anonymous said was not objectively wrong. And the reason they posted anonymously was probably not because they thought it was wrong, but because they were afraid that if they posted under their CB name, they’d get yelled at, berated, and picked on for it. There are some people here who, when angry, can’t communicate as kindly as you do (and I do appreciate you being calm and kind about your point of view). I’ve been there myself, and I can’t say I blame anonymous.
I agree with St. I do actually think that saying "straight pride" is objectively wrong, for all the reasons that St. detailed. And I say this from the perspective of a straight person. While I guess I am proud of being straight (as in, it's just part of my identity, and there's nothing wrong with that), the point of LGBTQ+ Pride is that they're a generally oppressed minority group. Every single day is Straight Pride day. If I hold hands with my girlfriend in public, no one is judging us, and that's exactly why Straight Pride doesn't need to exist in the same way that LGBTQ+ Pride does. So yeah, I agree that what anonymous said is pretty offensive, and I think St. was right to call them out.
0
submitted by Zeus, Idaho (June 23, 2019 - 7:41 pm)
Snaps to that. I could agree more with what was said here (I know it was posted last year), and it perfectly sums up everything I feel on this topic. Thank you for so calmly and kindly explaining this.
0
submitted by Jade J., over the rainbow (June 2, 2020 - 6:07 pm)
Happy Pride Month everyone! I totally agree with what everyone has said and I'm glad we live in such a diverse world.Also, @Little Mercury, I was thinking the same thing when I was reading the old posts on this thread.
Bye!
0
submitted by Angela , age 12, Earth (June 16, 2019 - 5:01 pm)
(June 28, 2019 - 9:18 am)
#straightpride
(June 16, 2019 - 8:48 am)
Hello, my darling, dear anonymous.
I am going to start this off by saying that you already know you've done something wrong. You know you've done something wrong because you posted this message under a pseudonym because you didn't want people to know who actually posted this. But I'm going to explain to you, step by step, why this is wrong anyway.
Because, darling, there are many things that have upset me in the years that I've been on this earth.
Firstly, I would like to say that there is nothing wrong with being proud of who you are. If you're straight, that's great. Congrats! I hope you live a long, happy, contented life with a partner who you can be yourself with. Maybe don't have a partner at all if you're happy with that. But if you're straight, you deserve a good life just like anyone else, and you deserve to be happy that you're straight, and live out relationships as a straight person, and be safe and proud of your identity.
But here's the thing.
A lot of queer people can't do that. A lot of queer people are attacked every day for being who they are - by their family, by their community, by random people on the street. Some live in fear of expressing themselves. Other can't come to terms with who they are because they're afraid to, or because they've been trained to think that who they are is wrong, and terrible. Many queer people do not live out long, happy, contented lives. They live out short, miserable, unfinished ones full of questions and self-hatred and malice.
That's the first thing. I'm sure you already knew that.
But here's the thing. I'm not here to play the oppression games with you. What I'm here to explain is why posting that comment HERE was a bad idea.
Pride Month takes place in June on the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which were the starting place for the queer rights movement that began in the late 60s and is still happening today. Pride Month, however, is not a battle, and it's not a movement. It's a celebration. It's a celebration for queer people all over the world who constantly feel ostracized and hated simply because of who they are. It's a time when they can ignore the prejudice thrown at them and celebrate themselves and their identities, rejoice in their differences and show them to the world in a message that not only are they not afraid, they are proud of who they are, and nothing can take that away from them.
Straight (and cis) people don't know what that feels like.
They don't know what it feels like to live in fear of having people know who you truly are. In which every day is a struggle between staying in the closet and telling the truth. Fighting for your safety, learning to judge which people you can trust. And then having a chance to break free of that, to know, for once, that you are you, and you are beautiful.
Posting #straightpride on a thread dedicated to that feels like an attack.
I'm in the closet. I have been for years. I'm faced with insecurity and doubt about myself and my identity. I have it a lot better than so many people. But every day, still, I find myself making choices. About what to reveal, what not to reveal, to who, when. You don't really understand how much a secret can permeate into every aspect of your daily life until you're carrying one.
So Pride means a lot to me.
#straightpride is not a movement to be proud of being straight. If it is, it's already happening, 365 days a year. #straightpride was created in backlash. Because the queer community can't have something just for ourselves. We need to share with the very people who made us feel like we needed something for ourselves in the first place.
Posting #straightpride in a thread dedicated to Pride Month is like talking about how proud you are to be white in a serious conversation about racism. It's not taking pride in yourself. It's trying to attack other peoples' pride. You're taking something away from us that we've fought so hard to have.
And I'll be honest: seeing this comment here? It hurt.
I felt betrayed. Pride is a safe space. Pride is a place where I can be me. But apparently I can't, because people will still find a way to infiltrate, to force me to close up, to doubt who I am and if I can be safe expressing that.
Please understand the implications of what you've said. Please understand that you're hurting people by saying it. Please understand that #straightpride is not actually straight pride - it's homophobia. And it does affect people.
I hope you can understand.
(June 16, 2019 - 10:37 pm)
I have to disagree, St. I understand your point, but what anonymous said was not objectively wrong. And the reason they posted anonymously was probably not because they thought it was wrong, but because they were afraid that if they posted under their CB name, they’d get yelled at, berated, and picked on for it. There are some people here who, when angry, can’t communicate as kindly as you do (and I do appreciate you being calm and kind about your point of view). I’ve been there myself, and I can’t say I blame anonymous.
(June 23, 2019 - 7:01 am)
I agree with St. I do actually think that saying "straight pride" is objectively wrong, for all the reasons that St. detailed. And I say this from the perspective of a straight person. While I guess I am proud of being straight (as in, it's just part of my identity, and there's nothing wrong with that), the point of LGBTQ+ Pride is that they're a generally oppressed minority group. Every single day is Straight Pride day. If I hold hands with my girlfriend in public, no one is judging us, and that's exactly why Straight Pride doesn't need to exist in the same way that LGBTQ+ Pride does. So yeah, I agree that what anonymous said is pretty offensive, and I think St. was right to call them out.
(June 23, 2019 - 7:41 pm)
Snaps to that. I could agree more with what was said here (I know it was posted last year), and it perfectly sums up everything I feel on this topic. Thank you for so calmly and kindly explaining this.
(June 2, 2020 - 6:07 pm)
That's typically a statement made in contempt.
Are you okay?
(June 16, 2019 - 11:52 pm)
Hmm?
(June 18, 2019 - 5:16 pm)
Happy Pride Month everyone! I totally agree with what everyone has said and I'm glad we live in such a diverse world.Also, @Little Mercury, I was thinking the same thing when I was reading the old posts on this thread.
Bye!
(June 16, 2019 - 5:01 pm)
(June 21, 2019 - 1:50 pm)
(June 23, 2019 - 5:36 pm)
Happy Pride! Stay safe and be proud of yourselves, guys!
(June 23, 2019 - 8:03 pm)
(June 26, 2019 - 11:18 am)
Yayy Pride!!!!
Happy Pride month! :)
(June 26, 2019 - 8:57 pm)
(June 1, 2020 - 4:06 pm)