Pride season is well underway across the country. With the recently passed festivals and parades in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and many more, LGBTQs are proudly taking to the streets to celebrate. Every year I think about what it is that I'm proud of and how that is related to our queer history that we celebrating in the streets. In other words, what's the point of Pride?Tonight is the 43rd anniversary of the Stonewall raid and protest, which would carry on through the morning of June 28th. As many of us will recall, Pride parades are a reminder of the Stonewall actions. After standing up the police raid at the Stonewall Inn groups of queers protested up and down the streets in solidarity to put a face to the issue of queerness and to remind the rest of the world that we're not going anywhere. In many ways, our contemporary Pride parades and festivals renew that reminder of our queer presence and pay homage to our brave LGBTQ predecessors, but I can't help but wonder if we're losing the spirit of the initial queer liberation movement.
Four years ago I posted a YouTube video in which I shared my thoughts on how pride for me was a personal journey and process of learning to accept who I was a queer individual and finding that identity to be in reconciliation with my Christian heritage:
After four years, the process and journey does not stop. But I am learning to be proud of different aspects of my life and my process of understanding of what pride continues to evolve. As I look at these parades and festivals there is such a huge focus on advancing marriage equality and the growing number of churches that are opening their doors to affirm LGBTQ individuals and their partnerships. While I find these both to be very important things, I can't help but to feel that there is something more fundamental that I should be striving to be proud of.
Lately I've been reading a lot of radical queer manifestos and rants from the early queer liberation movement—one in particular being Queers Read This! As I read these pieces I reflect on the ways their messages can impact and inform my own identity politics and understandings of being queer and liberated. So what am I proud of this Pride season? I'm proud to be sexual.
I've written before that I believe that freedom of sexual expression is at the heart of LGBTQ liberation, and I continue to expand how I feel about that. I feel that being proud of sexual expression is more universal and cross-cultural than just the umbrella idea of "gay rights." In many other global contexts, especially Latin American, 'homosexuality' remains to be an invisible institution; conversations remain to be about gender deviance and sexual identities are just out of the conversation. I am proud of the fact that I can claim sexual experiences and identity on my own terms, which I believe extends beyond just a gay or lesbian identity. At the basic level, the claiming and coining of sexual expression and admitting that sexuality exists as a category in and of itself, enables and encourages us to be proud of the identities that we claim today. Stonewall was more than just claiming to be gay or lesbian, it was about fighting for the freedom to express our sexuality in a way that affirms and values ourselves and our community.
As I continue to celebrate Pride this summer I carry with me the legacy of sexual liberation that was inaugurated for queers over forty years ago. It is my own hope and prayer that we let their brave proclamations of sexual freedom continue to inform our liberation movements today.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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