by Maja Heban
translated from Polish
As every year, we started LGBT + Pride Month at the beginning of June. This is the time that usually opens the period of equality marches, which can be seen not only on city streets but also on the Internet. The month of pride is torn from every side - LGBT + people ironically mention rainbow capitalism, i.e. advertising with rainbow products, and conservatives roar about propaganda and betrayal of values.
June is the international LGBT + Pride Month
Every year there are comments questioning the sense of pride in inborn qualities or making the entire month someone's holiday
This is due to a lack of understanding of what pride is for those who are brought up to be ashamed
Why are we celebrating Pride Month? The history that we commemorate in this way can be recalled quickly and efficiently. But it's not the Stonewall riots that the people who get pissed off at the rainbow logos of their favorite corporations and equality marches are not what they want. People want to know why you can't be proud to be straight, or why someone should be proud of something that is not an achievement. It will not be a bold statement if I say that these questions are asked rather rhetorically.
LGBT + Pride Month is an American tradition that began in the late 1990s. June is important because this month marks the anniversary of the riots at the Stonewall Inn in New York, a bar that brought together the local non-heteronormative community. In the 1960s, the police in the USA were not very sympathetic to the LGBT + community, and the LGBT + community could not participate in social and professional life on an equal basis. It did not help the fact that due to ostracism towards LGBT + people, it happened that non-heteronormative-friendly premises were places where shameful business was held, because only such places were open to them. Treating LGBT + people as criminals led to a raid on the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, when bar-goers, activists and other members of the local non-heteronormative community clashed with uniformed people.
The riots marked the symbolic beginning of the LGBT + equality movement in the United States. The events of June 1969 have become so legendary that the word Stonewall is still associated in the world with the struggle for the rights of LGBT + people, to which the name of the Polish foundation Grupa Stonewall refers to.or calling the police-suppressed protests last year after Margot's arrest "the Polish Stonewall". Though there was no shortage of activists before that, Stonewall became the founding myth of a movement that, over the next decades, brought marital equality, normalization of LGBT + people, and greater media exposure. This does not mean, however, that the fight is over and the goals have been achieved. The tradition of the month of pride has spread around the world, including in countries where the situation of LGBT + people is much worse. The community also includes other groups that were previously less talked about - for example, transgender people have only recently become noticeable and positively portrayed in the media and pop culture, while in the United States themselves their situation alternately improves and worsens.
Why are heterosexuals not having their parade?
One should not forget about Stonewall - celebrating anniversaries is popular, and no one forbids learning history. But why a whole month? And why pride in something that is innate? These aren't really complicated questions. However depressing it may be, LGBT + people will fight for their rights for a long, long time. There are countries where the perhaps needed social change will never happen. Granting legal equality in several countries around the world is not enough to wipe out centuries of persecution and reduce LGBT + people to the role of freaks on the fringes of society. It is not a celebration of other views, but of people who are still denied a normal life.
When we hear from childhood that something is wrong with homosexual or transgender people , and we receive such messages from politicians, publicists, clergy and family members, with time we start to believe, even subconsciously, that sexuality and gender identity is something we should become ashamed. Besides, other people's judgments are the reason why we hide - our otherness can literally destroy our careers, be the cause of violence, deprive us of family and home. Shame is an integral part of growing up as an LGBT + person. So when we say that we feel pride, it is not literal pride, pride in being LGBT + person - it is pride in being such a person openly and surviving. An act of rebellion against the ubiquitous commandment of shame.
When someone says that "black lives matter" (Black Lives Matter), it is not that white people's lives are devoid of it. The idea is to show opposition to the idea that black people's lives are less valuable than white people's lives, and that this message can come from discrimination and violence. LGBT + Duma Month does not mean that heterosexual and cisgender people (that is, those who are not transgender) cannot be proud of themselves. They are simply not told that their heterosexuality is a sin that should be concealed so as not to be thrown out of the house and beaten. There will come a time for heterosexual parades and pride in cisgenderism when parents will renounce their non-gay son.