What Is Pride About?

What is pride?  I could give a history lesson on how pride first started along with the modern gay rights movement with the stone wall riots, but I think by now that is something that if not all most know, and if they don't they can easily find out or find some one that dose.  Instead I want to try to answer the question of what is pride what dose it mean now and what dose it stand for now.  I want to answer this because like every other thing in life as time has passed things have changed somethings for the better some possibly not all depending on ones view, but they have not stayed statically the same, as that is all but imposable in life.

I think that in this day of Internet activism, and the increasing ease with which political activism is organized and spread in this digital age, that it should come as no surprise that to some extent the political activism that used to be the driving force behind pride should now be in a co-driver position, allowing other important aspects to grow and blossom as well.  How ever to say the politics have left the building at least from where I site would be an overgeneralization, instead to say that some of the politics have become more mainstream would be more accurate.  As it is no not at all uncommon to see politics and those who work as the grassroots of their campaign taking part in pride parades and festivals, something that in the past unless they where gay, would have been all but unheard of.  What instead has happened is that the social side the need to connect with others, not just who are gay but who share other important aspects of ones life has grown, and that is something that is not bad, as it is something that allows people to connect, and to grow and share with others. 

This social side is the side that seems to be blossoming into and important co-driver of what pride is about today, it is taking the need to have an venue where one not only can be proud of the fact that they are gay and do so openly, but that also recognizes that there is more to them then just that, and allows them to connect with others who are like them and who support them that share in the others things in their life that also make them who they are.  It is the churches, the different social groups and activities, and organizations that have rightfully grown in importance.  Another aspect that has rightfully grown in importance has been celebrating the mile stones and progress that has been made, as that deserves to be celebrated.  Celebration is not wrong, not only is it a way of showing that we are a part of "normal" society, that we come from every walk of life, and every background but that we have also accomplished much even though we still have a long road ahead of us.  It has also grown not only from a form of defiance and showing that we are there but into a way to show how much a part of every day society we are and for a way for much of that society to show that they too value us as a part of it.  This can come in the form of city, police, fire, and even corporate participation in pride, it is a way to show that as much as we value our selves we are valued too.

Some may take it as just an excuse to party, get plastered and hook up, but that is not the majority, and it is something that can be said about any sort of celebration, and any group of people.  How ever for many more it is a time when they not only can be part of a majority, a majority that is like them and a majority that supports them, but where they can also be them selves with out having to leave parts out of having to have their "guard up" that being so is wrong.  It is something that can be and is quite powerful and that their really is not any other true substitute for.  It is also a time to show the world around that look at how many of use there are, a day where we don't blind into the sea of people around us, where we can stand out and say we are here and that you run into and interact with more of us then you think.  This to is a message that is just as important as any political goal. 

I think that importantly pride is about more then just politics and political goals, while they are an important part of pride as they are an important part of daily life, it is also just as importantly about a since of community a since of belonging and a since that you are fine just as you are and there are others out there just like you, and that it is OK to celebrate and be proud of who you are as a person.