Pride
July 3, 2023
June is what is known as Pride Month, a time when members of the LGBTQ+ community celebrate who they are - they celebrate their sexuality and their gender. But this past pride month, at least in my own country - the United States of America, it feels like others have been targeting the community more.
Every week, more and more laws are being passed for the sole purpose of suppressing people from being who they are. Laws have been passed to try and impose the death penalty for the "crime" of wearing clothes that don't match your gender. This sort of shit is ridiculous, especially when the only person being affected by such a thing is the person wearing that.
The people behind these laws claim they're to "protect children" or whatever nonsense they've deluded themselves into believing. But that's not true at all. The real purpose of these laws are to oppress people who they find "different" and maybe even give them an excuse to kill them. This country has begun an active genocide against some of its own people.
Even Twitter has become a hellscape of bigotry. Aside from all the other nonsense going on with the site, it feels like you can say the most batshit insane nonsense possible, and yet as long as it's only targeted at someone who isn't straight, white, or male, it's allowed.
And then on the other hand, you have Elon Musk - the now CEO of Twitter - saying that "cisgender" is considered a slur. That's like saying "white" is a slur. But the real meaning behind this isn't that they find that word offensive, it's that they find the idea that they aren't the default offensive. They want to be considered "normal" and anyone who isn't like them to not be considered as such.
Well, newsflash, nobody is normal. Everyone is different, everyone is unique, and trying to suppress what makes us unique is basically asking us to be something that isn't us.
We need to be proud of who we are. We need to fight for who we are. And anyone on the opposing side can go fuck themselves. This is our life, not theirs.
Recently, my dad brought up a law that was proposed in Michigan - one that enforces the use of someone's preferred pronouns - and he said to me "If you consider yourself a female and I call you sir, I can go to jail for five years. Those people are so screwed up."
He doesn't realize how much that hurt me to hear him say that directly to my face. He doesn't realize how much it's hurt me to hide who I truly am, who I want to be, from him, because I've been scared that he might not accept me. He doesn't realize how much it hurts me to finally know for sure that my dad hates people like me.
I was too scared to change my profile picture online to one that celebrated who I was because I'm friends with my little brother on Discord. But I'm tired of hiding. I'm tired of not being allowed to be who I am, to celebrate who I am.
I'm bisexual
I'm a trans woman
I'm demiromantic
This is who I am
And I am proud to be all of those things.