Pride Month takes place every year in June and it is filled with people of all sexualities being proud of who they are. There’s parades, rallies, festivals and an overwhelming sense of happiness for the LGBTQIA+ community. It’s a safe space and commemorates the Stonewall Riots that took place in 1969. This year, New York had the biggest Pride parade in the world with an estimated 4.5 million people attending. While the celebrations ensued, a group known as Super Happy Fun America posted that they wanted to organize a ‘Straight Pride’ because they felt that the LGBTQIA+ community ‘wasn’t inclusive’ and ‘oppressed straight people’. I could go on about how that statement is…odd instead, I’ll focus on why Pride itself is important and why Straight Pride isn’t necessary.
What were the Stonewall Riots and why does it matter?
During the 1950s and 60s, there were many anti-gay laws in America and being gay could lead to being arrested. The Stonewall riots took place in Greenwich Village at the Stonewall Inn against the police and the gay patrons in the early hours of the morning. There were very few establishments that would welcome gay people but bars were frequent safe spaces. Police raids on gay bars were the norm until the riot at Stonewall, where the police lost control as the patrons protested. Within weeks, Village residents organized activist groups to establish places for LGBTQIA+ people and allow them to express their sexuality without being arrested. More activist groups began surfacing all over America and by 1970, the first gay pride marches took place in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Today, LGBTQIA+ Pride parades are held worldwide to commemorate the Stonewall Riots.
Image by The Harvard Gazette
Why is Straight Pride ridiculous?
Straight Pride is one of two things; either a joke to the community because they openly want to insult Pride or people are serious about wanting a Straight Pride. The Stonewall Riots were necessary in taking a step forward for gay people to be accepted in the community. Straight people have never been oppressed, kicked out of their homes, bullied, driven to commit suicide or murdered for being anything other than straight.
One user wrote on Happy Fun America’s Facebook page, “Gay pride did not start just to celebrate being gay, but our right to exist without persecution and to commemorate the Stonewall riots, where people fought for basic human rights. It was illegal just for gay people to congregate together at the time. There has never been a NEED for a straight pride movement because straight people have never been persecuted for being straight. This is a disgusting display and a mockery.”
My opinion
Pride itself is important since LGBTQIA+ people today are still being oppressed and experience violence, such as the Orlando Night Club shooting in 2016 and the serial killer of 2010- 2017 who murdered eight gay men. Pride is a place for people to be themselves and even if people are straight, that doesn’t mean they can’t come to Pride. Rather be an ally and support. Donate to LGBTQIA+ organizations and show that people of all sexualities are welcome.
We need love in this world and trying to make Straight Pride real will just take everyone a step backwards.
Image by Twitter, tweet by @DrRonHolt (a psychiatrist spreading awareness for and supporting LGBTQIA+)