I'm proud of my gayness insomuch as it's adversity I've overcome and it's given me a perspective on the world as a minority that had a not been gay I might not have had.
I'm proud of the things being gay has brought me, the accomplishments from it, the journey - that's what pride is actually about, celebrating that journey, those accomplishments, the community we formed to overcome adversity.
There is something valuable in being different than the norm, because of the perspective it does indeed bring you, and it's okay in my book to feel pride about that.
My hope is one day, there won't be a need for pride anymore, we're not there yet, but maybe in my lifetime.
Thanks for this valuable insight. I have learnt something from this. I understand that you do have something to be proud about and that it's not just being proud of being gay, but proud of being gay in this world.
People like me often make the mistake of jumping too far ahead. I'm basically already 10-20 years ahead here, so in my mind I don't feel like you need to be proud of anything. I have to remind myself that others aren't as quick and change happens more slowly.
Shame that my original comment was flagged, so I'm probably the only person who will read this.
I wonder how common this issue is, hoe often we're just talking past one another. Even though we're agreeing.
I think some folks on my side of this are stuck in the past, Trump's election in some ways paused our internal mental realization of our own progress greatly.
If anything it made us feel as if the last 20-25 years of progress was imminently threatened, and we're seeing the reaction to this right now. It saddens me so very greatly, because it just inflames things further and somewhat perversely that reactionary tendency puts the progress at risk.
I'm proud of the things being gay has brought me, the accomplishments from it, the journey - that's what pride is actually about, celebrating that journey, those accomplishments, the community we formed to overcome adversity.
There is something valuable in being different than the norm, because of the perspective it does indeed bring you, and it's okay in my book to feel pride about that.
My hope is one day, there won't be a need for pride anymore, we're not there yet, but maybe in my lifetime.