Editorial
Guest
Editorial
Still Proud
Recently,
we have heard more than one Vermonter ask whether we really need Pride
anymore. Maybe, as a recent article in the local weekly suggested, it
is enough just to "live gay."
It is predictable but misguided for
those of us who have the privilege of being out and proud about our queer
identity to call for the end of Pride celebrations. Of course we don't
need a parade to be gay, but we should certainly want one. Pride is about
community building, it's one of the things we've traditionally done well
together and the end of Pride will signal defeat, not victory.
In 2005, Pride festivals, parades,
and celebrations will stretch from early June to mid-September throughout
the U.S. and world. Pride is 35 years old, (it doesn't look a day over
18), yet despite its age and international presence, Pride here at home
in Vermont is fading.
Did you know that the P.R.I.D.E (People
of the Rainbow Integrating Diversity Everywhere) festival in Vermont is
one of the oldest festivals in New England? Started over 20 years ago,
what began as a small parade in Burlington became a large waterfront festival
with satellite events around state.
Unfortunately today the all-volunteer
P.R.I.D.E committee struggles with the same challenges facing all queer
organizations in Vermont: lack of funds, volunteers and/or board members,
and the resulting lack of institutional memory and energy to keep pride
at the level that Vermonters have come to expect each summer. Maybe it
is not a bad thing that Pride will be smaller, more grass roots this year.
However, it would be disastrous if we were to lose the P.R.I.D.E Celebration
all together.
Remember the first time you
went to a Pride event? All those rainbow flags, the cruising, the queens,
the celebrating! Remember feeling validated and not alone (feeling proud)?
There are many closeted, questioning, and newly out in our community,
not only youth, who still need what Pride provides.
It is because of Pride in the
first place that some of us are able to "just live gay." Before
we declare Pride over we need to remember what it means to our community.
Pride, especially in Vermont,
has always been a community event. It draws those of us who wish to celebrate,
share a political message, sing, dance, and revel in our existence. At
Pride we are young and old, many sexualities and genders, races, and political
ideologies. We bring our families, the ones we were born in to or the
ones we’ve made. It is one big, proud family event. (And we mean
family in every, snap/snap, way.)
Like most families, we need
these carefully planned & attended events once a year to remember
the past, recognize the present, and dream about the future - together.
As a rural state with
a scarcity of social opportunities for lgbt people, we cannot afford to
turn up our noses at Pride.
We need our Pride day
to take to the streets, all of us from the nelly queens to the dykes on
bikes, and not fear retribution.
Our youth need to be able see
and meet real, live happy gay people (don't believe the hype – the
Fab Five are not our role model super heroes).
We need Pride to celebrate our
real progress – the political, social, and personal gains, not just
the number of queers on TV. We need Pride so that our heterosexual allies
have a dedicated day to stand with us and celebrate our community.
We need Pride because most people
(young and old) don't know what the Stonewall rebellion was.
We need Pride because
our larger culture still demands our silence.
We need Pride because AIDS
is not over and it's still killing our community with abandon.
We need Pride because
a day without Faeries...
We need Pride because
if you don't make enough money, if you aren't white enough, and if you're
gender non-conforming, then you aren't the "right kind" of gay.
We need Pride because our queer
organizations struggle for volunteers and for money.
We need Pride because
we have yet to come together as one larger movement that is inclusive
of diverse sexual orientations and gender identities. We need Pride because
we still need allies of all sexual orientation and genders to join us.
Prophesying the end of Pride
sells short our entire movement – we didn't
fight this hard just to fit in, we are fighting this hard still to rise
above and beyond "just" anything.
We are here, queer, and fabulous.
And that's "just" the truth.
Kate Jerman & Lluvia Mulvaney-Stanak
Kate Jerman & Lluvia Mulvaney Stanak are the Co-Directors of Outright
Vermont. They couldn't decide whose individual essay was better, so they
wrote this together. They hope to see you in the P.R.I.D.E parade on Saturday,
July 9th.
NOTE: Special thanks to Stuart Granoff for our Pride issue cover art,
"Faces from Out in the Mountains." All of the people
pictured he found in our pages since we've been running his cartoon "Greenlanders."