I can hear the comments before I even start typing a single word.
"I don't care about pride, but stop shoving it in my face."
"When's straight pride month?"
People in the LGBTQ+ community are humans. They are people. They deserve decency and respect just like the rest of us. Being part of society used to require that from its citizens and the community at large was expected to uphold those values.
We're so far beyond the days of "if you don't have anything to say, don't say anything at all", it's as if we've travelled back in time – into some sort of alternate reality fuelled by anger and rage and satisfaction of "owning" people online.
We now live in a place where a person acknowledges Pride Month on social media and at pride events, and they're berated, belittled and ridiculed as if they've just committed a heinous crime.
When an organization posts on social media in honour of Pride Month, the comments are overflowing with homophobic slurs and anti-gay tropes that are tired, disrespectful and just straight up cruel.
Online hate and homophobia have certainly ratcheted up in recent years, it's also just prevalent in real life.
PRISM Wetaskiwin, a non-profit LGBTQIA2S+ society, is going ahead with a Pride in the Park festival on June 7, despite the vandalism of rainbow crosswalks they recently painted.
PRISM executive director Donald Haywood said they're tired of the harassment and hate, but they aren't going to be silent.
"We're not going home. We're not going to sit down and shut up," Haywood told the Pipestone Flyer last week.
I could've easily gone home and shut up. I'm a white, privileged male who has had every advantage this beautiful country can provide a person. I don't have to fight about this.
I don't have to be angry on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. But it's not fair what they're going through and continue to have to fight for. It's not right.
It's not fair that this community just wants a crosswalk painted in different colours to signify to young people who are worried they don't matter, or their existence is "wrong", that they do matter. That they are valued. It's not even just young people who face those questions in the LGBTQ+ community. There are plenty of adults who face those same questions. To know there is a community that cares, that will love them for who they are and accept them for who they are, is what life is all about. We are social creatures who just want to know we are accepted and loved.
A rainbow can simply be a rainbow, or it can be a symbol that holds special meaning for a group of people. No one is trying to commandeer it or make you believe a certain thing.
Just because an organization is recognizing Pride Month doesn't mean they're shoving it in your face or trying to indoctrinate your children.
It's an exercise in nuance.
I ignore dandelions and people who don't put their shopping carts back and jerks who tailgate on the highway. I ignore phone calls from telemarketers, countless prompts from every business in the world to tip (ones that shouldn't require it) and spam emails from LinkedIn. These are all hyperbolic (albeit real) ridiculous comparisons designed to make you see the fallacy in the argument against your prejudice towards the LGBTQ+ community.
There are things all around us that we choose to ignore if we don't have anything nice to say about them.
For those who can't understand why pride is important or why members of the LGBTQ+ community need a month like this, then leave them alone. Don't write homophobic or anti-gay comments on pride posts. Don't vandalize crosswalks or protest their events. Let these people be who they are and allow them at least to have a safe space. We all deserve that decency.
As Donald Haywood put it:
"I think Pride is just important for queer people to have a day, or a number of days, where we can celebrate in a safe space," he said.
"We don't often have the opportunity, like most minority groups, to celebrate," said Haywood.
"Pride just gives us a chance to be who we are and not give a damn."
And I think that's something worth celebrating.
Byron Hackett is the Managing Editor of the Red Deer Advocate and Regional Editor for Black Press Media.
