Pride
Earlier this month I was having lunch at a favorite local pub, O’Neill’s. The servers were all wearing tie-dyed shirts, and across the front of the shirts was written O’Neill’s Pride. When I commented on the shirts to the waitress, she said, “It’s nice to wear such a colorful shirt.” I wasn’t sure she understood the significance of wearing rainbow colors during June.
The same week, The Washington Post had an editorial about rainbow capitalism, the notion that retailers bombard the public with rainbow merchandise during Pride Month every June. The writer, Brian Broome, a gay man, opined that some younger members of LBGTQ community are offended by such displays, complaining the retailers are only after corporate profits with no real interest in the queer community or their issues.
The same sentiment was expressed for Pride parades. Broome reminisced about his first participation in one in the early 1990’s. It was a different time then. Coming out was fraught with anxiety, and there was open hostility to queer people. That’s what his younger friend doesn’t know since her coming out experience was significantly different. They didn’t understand the way it once was.
Despite the apparent commercialism, Broome sees value in the assault of rainbow merchandise. To him, it signifies acceptance and representation of the queer community during a time of anti-LGBTQ sentiment. He imagined how his 13-year-old self would have reacted had he seen how positively normal it is to be gay.
[You can read Mr. Broome’s editorial at: https://tinyurl.com/yb2f8fjk.]
Reading the editorial reminded me of discussions I’ve had over the years with younger women, explaining to them the barriers in employment that women once faced. There were personal questions during job interviews about plans to marry or have children, questions that were outlawed in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act, but nevertheless persisted. These discussions were always met with looks of wonder and shock from younger women who didn’t understand the way it once was.
Reflecting on all of this, I think about hearing David McCollough, writer and historian, say that we have to know where we’ve been to know where we are going.
In these turbulent times, it’s critical to tell the lessons of the past. It’s critical to tell them so we don’t return to the worst of times past. It’s critical to take pride in what we’ve accomplished and who we are—individually and collectively. It’s critical to understand the way it once was.
Happy Pride Month.