Gay Pride & the National Equality March
When the LGBT community gets together, one of the activities we enjoy most is marching. We don’t seem to care much where we do it, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is, and we don’t need any one reason—we just like getting together, making signs, chanting and cheering at the top of our lungs, and causing a big scene no matter where we end up. I mean, sure, it’s most effective when we go somewhere like Tallahassee, FL, to demand our rights from our state’s capitol at the Rally in Tally; or when we go to Washington, D.C., to participate in a nation-wide show of force to demand our rights from our nation’s capitol during the National Equality March. Still, if the LGBT community can get some attention by being a part of a big gay parade anywhere, anytime, for any reason, we’re in.
Why did we start up with this whole “marching” thing, anyway? I think we’ve got the Stonewall Riots of 1969 to thank for this particular tradition in the LGBT movement, as the first gay pride march occurred one year after the riots in order to celebrate their anniversary. “The first marches were both serious and fun, and served to inspire the widening activist movement; they were repeated in the following years, and more and more annual marches started up in other cities throughout the world. In New York and Atlanta the marches were called Gay Liberation Marches, and the day of celebration was called ‘Gay Liberation Day;’ in San Francisco and Los Angeles they became known as Gay Freedom Marches and the day was called ‘Gay Freedom Day.’ As more towns and cities began holding their own celebrations, these names spread.” (Stolen straight from Wikipedia.org.)
Last Friday, several members of UWF’s Gay-Straight Alliance embarked on a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., to participate in the National Equality March. Some of these members rode on a bus for over 24 hours, traveling all over Florida to pick up students from other Universities before heading on a course to the nation’s capitol. Unfortunately, yours truly was having her own fun at a leadership retreat and could not participate in the LGBT festivities, but I’ve heard all sorts of magnificent stories. Those in attendance at the National Equality March got to hear from speakers such as Judy Shepard and Lady Gaga… those speakers alone would have made it worth the trip, in my opinion. There was lots of cheering, lots of flag-waving, over 300,000 LGBT individuals and their allies, and best of all… a ton of pride and demands for equality. Words cannot express how very proud I am of my friends and fellow GSA members for participating in this monumental event.
Check out these fabulous videos from the National Equality March!
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=national+equality+march&search_type=&aq=f
Monday, October 19, 2009
Pride - Christine Thomas
Pride
There are many models of the “Stages of Coming Out,” but my personal favorite is a six-step model consisting of the following:
1. Identity Confusion
2. Identity Comparison
3. Identity Tolerance
4. Identity Acceptance
5. Identity Pride
6. Identity Synthesis
To sum it up, when a person realizes that he or she (to simplify my typing, let’s just go with “he”) is somehow different (for our purposes, we’ll just use the blanket term “gay”), there is a psychological process that he goes through in coming to terms with this new realization. It starts with confusion: he’s not quite sure why he’s attracted to other guys and tries to deny or fight against these feelings. Next, he begins to compare himself to others, noticing that he is different and trying to figure out what exactly a gay person is comprised of. In the tolerance stage, he begins to admit to himself that maybe he could be gay, and in the acceptance stage, he starts to come out to others. We can refer to the pride stage as the “I’m here, I’m queer” stage. This level is all rainbows and gay paraphernalia all the time. When reaching the level of synthesis, he begins to see himself as a person who happens to be gay, rather than a person who lives and breathes nothing but homosexuality and gay culture.
While Identity Synthesis is the ideal level in coming to terms with one’s sexuality, the stage that seems to bring the LGBT community together is #5: Identity Pride. For one, the word “synthesis” just isn’t as easy to rhyme, say, or tweak as the word “pride.” For another, I think it takes individuals who at least keep a toe in the Identity Pride stage to really make a difference when it comes to LGBT equality. If we were going to make this model a scale, I’d be at about 5.5—halfway between Pride and Synthesis. Most of the time, I don’t go around thinking or talking about being bisexual. Contrary to popular belief, I’ve got a life outside of LGBT activism that doesn’t involve my sexuality whatsoever. I’m pretty well synthesized, if I do say so myself. Really, though, since such a huge part of my life consists of the fight for equal rights, my sexual preference (and the preferences of my friends and activist colleagues) is a consistent topic of conversation. Therefore, I still wiggle around a bit with Identity Pride.
If you haven’t noticed, pride is a really big deal in the LGBT community. It’s important to not only accept our sexuality, not only to not be ashamed of it, but to announce it loud and proud just to make sure we’re grabbing everyone’s attention. I like to think of pride as more than an excuse to wear lots of loud crazy rainbow accessories… pride is more of a tool in the battle for equality. Think about it. If the LGBT community was guaranteed 100% equal rights and no discrimination, would we have any need to scream and shout about our sexuality? No. We’d be considered (insert gasp here) normal members of society, and would have no need to go any further than accepting and understanding who we are. As it is, however, we face all sorts of hate crimes and the legal inability to marry and denial of employment and housing and… you get the picture. Therefore, we have to show “the man” that we are proud of being members of the LGBT community and that we do not want to change to fit into society’s pre-determined mold of who is and is not worthy of equal rights due to issues of sexual preference. In this way, we use pride to help us achieve our ends.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my rambling on the subject of pride. This was all really very train of thought and I’m just glad you people seem to care enough to read about my random LGBT musings. Thanks a bunch and have a great week. :D
There are many models of the “Stages of Coming Out,” but my personal favorite is a six-step model consisting of the following:
1. Identity Confusion
2. Identity Comparison
3. Identity Tolerance
4. Identity Acceptance
5. Identity Pride
6. Identity Synthesis
To sum it up, when a person realizes that he or she (to simplify my typing, let’s just go with “he”) is somehow different (for our purposes, we’ll just use the blanket term “gay”), there is a psychological process that he goes through in coming to terms with this new realization. It starts with confusion: he’s not quite sure why he’s attracted to other guys and tries to deny or fight against these feelings. Next, he begins to compare himself to others, noticing that he is different and trying to figure out what exactly a gay person is comprised of. In the tolerance stage, he begins to admit to himself that maybe he could be gay, and in the acceptance stage, he starts to come out to others. We can refer to the pride stage as the “I’m here, I’m queer” stage. This level is all rainbows and gay paraphernalia all the time. When reaching the level of synthesis, he begins to see himself as a person who happens to be gay, rather than a person who lives and breathes nothing but homosexuality and gay culture.
While Identity Synthesis is the ideal level in coming to terms with one’s sexuality, the stage that seems to bring the LGBT community together is #5: Identity Pride. For one, the word “synthesis” just isn’t as easy to rhyme, say, or tweak as the word “pride.” For another, I think it takes individuals who at least keep a toe in the Identity Pride stage to really make a difference when it comes to LGBT equality. If we were going to make this model a scale, I’d be at about 5.5—halfway between Pride and Synthesis. Most of the time, I don’t go around thinking or talking about being bisexual. Contrary to popular belief, I’ve got a life outside of LGBT activism that doesn’t involve my sexuality whatsoever. I’m pretty well synthesized, if I do say so myself. Really, though, since such a huge part of my life consists of the fight for equal rights, my sexual preference (and the preferences of my friends and activist colleagues) is a consistent topic of conversation. Therefore, I still wiggle around a bit with Identity Pride.
If you haven’t noticed, pride is a really big deal in the LGBT community. It’s important to not only accept our sexuality, not only to not be ashamed of it, but to announce it loud and proud just to make sure we’re grabbing everyone’s attention. I like to think of pride as more than an excuse to wear lots of loud crazy rainbow accessories… pride is more of a tool in the battle for equality. Think about it. If the LGBT community was guaranteed 100% equal rights and no discrimination, would we have any need to scream and shout about our sexuality? No. We’d be considered (insert gasp here) normal members of society, and would have no need to go any further than accepting and understanding who we are. As it is, however, we face all sorts of hate crimes and the legal inability to marry and denial of employment and housing and… you get the picture. Therefore, we have to show “the man” that we are proud of being members of the LGBT community and that we do not want to change to fit into society’s pre-determined mold of who is and is not worthy of equal rights due to issues of sexual preference. In this way, we use pride to help us achieve our ends.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my rambling on the subject of pride. This was all really very train of thought and I’m just glad you people seem to care enough to read about my random LGBT musings. Thanks a bunch and have a great week. :D
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Matthew Shepard - Christine Thomas
I am an extremely passionate person. When I throw myself into a cause, I dive in head-first and become so involved that you’ll likely never see me again. This is how I am when it comes to the fight for LGBT equality. Every now and then, though, activism gets to be so routine or so enjoyable that I may need a little reminder of why I fight so hard. Each time I reach this point, I think of Matthew Shepard.
Matthew Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming in the 1990s. He was really just a regular guy, with a mind for activism and a generally optimistic outlook, as well as some inner struggles with depression and peer pressure. You know, a normal twenty-something, just like the rest of us. Matthew also happened to be gay, and like other young gay males, he faced challenges related to his sexuality and discrimination from the bigots in his town.
On October 7, 1998, Matthew Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at a local bar. After offering Matthew a ride, the two strangers robbed and tortured him before tying him to a fence post outside of Laramie, Wyoming, and leaving him with severe brain trauma. It was another eighteen hours before Matthew was found, and life support sustained him for five more days before he succumbed to his inoperable injuries and passed away on October 12, 1998.
Less than a year later, Matthew Shepard’s murderers were brought to as much justice as the court system can provide for such a heinous act. Matthew is now seen as a martyr for the cause of equal rights and ending discrimination against homosexuals. Songs and films have been written in honor of Matthew, as well as a very popular play entitled “The Laramie Project.” The Matthew Shepard Act (officially called the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Protection Act) has been passed, including sexual orientation as a legally-recognized basis for hate crimes. Matthew’s tragic death has opened many eyes to the plight of the LGBT community, and he is remembered annually on October 12. (This year, the UWF GSA will be holding a candlelight vigil that night on the Cannon Greens.)
While watching the U.S. House of Representatives discuss the Matthew Shepard act on April 29, 2009, via streaming video online, I came to a harsh realization. The speakers spoke at length about Matthew Shepard, as well as of several other young gay men who have been killed in recent years because of their sexual orientation. Each of the cases mentioned featured homosexual victims who were in their late teens or early twenties, male, and generally well-liked. Hearing these cases, I began to draw parallels between the traits of the victims discussed and those of my own friends—the vast majority of whom happen to be young, gay men. Allowing myself to think further on these hard-to-swallow comparisons, I fully realized why I fight so hard to advocate for equal rights and acceptance: I don’t want to live in fear that one day, one of my best friends will be tied to a fence post outside of Laramie, Wyoming.
I’m a bubbly little activist. I put on a smile and use my enthusiasm to educate and advocate in the name of LGBT equality. I fight with compassion and perseverance for the people who make my life worth living. My friends mean the world to me, and the fact that most of them happen to fit into a demographic that has to be protected by hate crimes legislation terrifies me more than they will ever know. I will do whatever is within my power to make sure that Matthew Shepard did not die in vain, and to protect my friends from lethal ignorance and hatred.
For more information on Matthew Shepard and related issues, visit the following websites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.matthewshepard.org/
Monday, September 21, 2009
LGBT Community - Christine Thomas
It’s been a long day, so today’s blog is gonna’ be pretty chill. Let’s take a break from the hot issues and have a bit of a history lesson, shall we?
For centuries, homosexuals existed on the fringe of society; the LGBT community as it stands today did not begin to form until June of 1969 with the Stonewall Riots of New York’s Greenwich Village. This significant series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations was the first recorded incidence of homosexuals fighting back against governmental oppression on a unified scale. Stonewall served as the turning point between homosexuality being seen merely as a societal and romantic alternative, and homosexuals coming together to form an alliance in pursuit of recognition and equality.
After this point, the gay rights movement was truly born. In the past four decades, organizations advocating same-sex equality have become common, demonstrations and marches have become regular occurrences, and gays have become increasingly visible in the community and in the media. Gays are no longer denied service in bars; alternatively, “gay bars” are becoming veritable hot spots for people of all sexualities. The United States is making significant strides toward legalizing gay marriage in every state, and several countries have already beaten us to this goal. Now that gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered individuals have come together as a unit to fight for their rights, social progress is being made.
On top of the political movements made possible by the LGBT community, the existence of the community itself has become an important feature in the lives of many who do not identify as “straight.” Those who may now claim membership to the LGBT community would, several decades ago, have had a much more difficult time finding such a support group of like-minded individuals who share their lifestyle. Thanks to the coming-together of those with sexualities alternative to heterosexual, the gay rights movement is snowballing toward success.
Those are my two cents for the day. All of the above info has come straight from Wikipedia and my own little brain. Nothing too hardcore this week—I’m just grateful to be a part of such an awesome group of LGBT individuals (and allies!) as the UWF Gay-Straight Alliance and felt like saying so.
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