Many people don’t feel safe celebrating this year. Many people looking forward to their first Pride may have retreated a bit further into the closet. Many people are putting flags they would have flown all year into storage. Every day, there’s another news story about politicians tabling legislation to make life a little harder for transgender people in the United States. Every day, there’s another news story at home about somebody’s pride flag being stolen, a pride crosswalk being vandalized, or a school district deciding that they’re not going to fly them at all this year.
People are scared. People are sad.
But it is still Pride.
Pride is a celebration of 2SLGBTQIA+ people in every beautiful variation. It’s a celebration of communities that have uplifted each other through oppression and crisis and celebrated with each other during times of success. It’s a celebration of found families and finding where you belong, a celebration of self-discovery and rediscovery, of defining and redefining, of realizing that who you are is something that you get to create.
Pride feels a little bit different this year, but it is still Pride. We will never say how people should or shouldn’t feel, especially when some people in our community are more threatened and more at risk than others. So we will say, instead, that even if Pride doesn’t feel safe for you—especially when Pride doesn’t feel safe for you—know that it is still for you. Pride can mean attending one of the big events with thousands of others, but it can also mean having dinner with a friend. Pride can mean making time to read that book by your favourite 2SLGBTQIA+ author that’s been on your To Be Read pile for so long that it’s collecting dust. Pride can mean wearing a skirt in public for the first time or buttoning up your shirt over your brand-new binder and seeing someone in the mirror you’ve been waiting to see for years. Pride can mean telling one person the new name that makes your heart sing, even if that one person is yourself.
Pride is whatever you want it to be.
To everyone who is celebrating, whether publicly or privately, vocally or silently, every day or just for a moment:
Happy Pride.
We’re so glad we get to celebrate with you.
