The History of Pride

LGBT history is not so much talked about. Our history is a part of American history and yet it is often left in the dark. There is this town that is about an hour and a half away from where I live. Watertown SD is the name of the town. They are having their first pride event. I went to high school in this town, and it wasn't the most LGBT friendly small town. It's nice to see that almost 50 years after Stonewall, that they are having a Pride in the Park event. Their event is not going to be as big as Sioux Falls Pride, but it is still progress. While reading the add for Watertown's pride event, I saw something that completely set me back. Somewhere in that article stated that it was 50 years since the first parade. First of all Watertown, Stonewall was not a parade. It was a riot. One day after being put down their entire lives, a group of LGBT people said enough was enough. Martha P Johnson and sometimes Syliva Revara are credited for throwing the first brick at Stonewall. Really no one is sure who it was, but they credit it to a butch lesbian. The Stonewall Riots was where everything started to turn. Throughout the 1960s in America, police would raid bars to catch and arrest people for being LGBT. June 29th, 1970 was when the first parades happened. They happened because at the time we needed them. It was an event where a group of disenfranchised people could be themselves in public for the day. This is only a sliver of LGBT history, but it should be told right. If you live in Watertown SD, or just planning to go to the event. Remember 50 years ago, was the Stonewall Riots, not the celebration of the first pride.

Straight Pride

Recently I came across something while scrolling through both Facebook and Youtube. Normally this is something I would try to pay no mind to, and that is having a straight pride parade. In August, it is set for Boston to have a straight pride parade. This is also the same year that marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. June 29th, 1969, the Stonewall Riots started, and they went until July 2nd, 1969. Straight pride just sound ridiculous. Being heterosexual has never caused someone their job, and it hasn't been demonized or has been called immoral. We have Pride to recognize that a community is still under attack. Yes, it is better than it was 50 years ago. The moment we stop needing an LGBT Pride month, or even a celebration is the moment we are seen as equals. It's the same moment that our some of our families see us as people and not some sort of shell of the person they thought they knew. Being gay is having greens eyes or a darker skin tone. You don't choose to be gay. The moment I realized that personally, my life became so much easier and so much harder. It was easier because I no hid that part of myself, and being honest with myself meant I was no longer denying apart of myself. What made it harder is the fact that some of my family members are not LGBT friendly. Some of my friends are still trying to come around to the idea. The idea that I dated men in the past meant somehow I couldn't be same-sex only. There are so many misconceptions about being gay, and coming out. Just because I am 25 years and I have finally come out about being gay doesn't make it any less valid. It is just as valid, and many others just like me are just as valid. What I go through and what many others in my community are going through, these are huge reasons why we don't need a straight pride celebration. You get that every time you walk out the door. I wrap my arm around my girlfriend in public, someone may make a big deal out of it. We have this fear in the back of our minds that someone might try to hurt us because we are a lesbian couple. It takes one time for someone to say or do something. The day someone who is straight starts seeing their rights be stripped away or start seeing violent actions being taken towards them is the day they need a parade. I will be one of the first people defending those rights. It is not an us versus them. Everyone deserves to have the same rights. Pride lets us show others that we exist and we are going to keep doing so. That we are going to keep fighting for our rights.