I was twenty-four and barely out of the closet. My very first Pride celebration was in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2004. Or when I in turn smile at someone else who is “part of the family.” This thing is indeed something worth celebrating. But it is often buoyed by the company of someone who sees me, this part or parts of me, and smiles either out of love or out of knowing.
Pride is something I feel intermittently, unreliably. I traffic, regularly enough, in worlds that-overtly or covertly-continue to tell me I should be ashamed-of being queer and especially of being trans. It’s an opportunity to affirm publicly the history, beauty, bravery, joy, sorrow, and even the delightful messiness of the lives of sexual and gender nonconformists. At its best, Pride Month can make us aware of the continued marginalization and persecution of queers while also being a radical celebration of queer joy and survival in an often hostile world.
GAY PRIDE RAINBOW VECTOR PROFESSIONAL
Living in a place like DC and working at a place like AU, it can be easy to forget that I live in something of a bubble, one where sexuality (at least of the white, cis, gay, professional variety) is something of a quotidian nonissue. What does Pride Month mean to you? Photo by Mercedes Mehlingįor me, it’s an important reminder of the need for queer community and solidarity. Tyler Christensen (professorial lecturer in the Department of Literature and the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies) Bob Connelly (senior adjunct professorial lecturer of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies in the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies) Dustin Friedman (associate professor, Department of Literature) and Perry Zurn (assistant professor and director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Philosophy & Religion). We asked four faculty members to share their thoughts on the importance of Pride Month and the people who celebrate it, the fight for equality, and the kind of world they would like to see in the future: K.
Though the LGBTQI+ community has come a long way, its gains are being threatened in many states across our nation. But it’s also a time to reflect on progress made in the fight for equality and justice. June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Pride Month.