København PRIDE
Pride 2023 was a big one for me, it was the first year for my participation in the parade and even more so, it was the first time that architects in Copenhagen have had any official presence at Pride. We decided to march under a unified banner unencumbered by corporate identities. We marched for ourselves and each other.
I get questions sometimes from good intentioned people about why we still have Pride. My first instinct is to brush off those assertions, but I’ve also never questioned why I needed Pride. It’s not like I go out to gay bars regularly, I don’t go to brunch often, I don’t keep up with gay culture even. I know that makes me sound like a bad gay but not doing those things don’t make me any less attracted to men. That’s the thing though, right? You only need to be physically attracted to the same sex, something that you can’t control at all. Have you ever asked a straight person why they think they are attracted to the opposite sex? They would probably say something something biology something. The point I’m making is that, straight people never have to think about those types of relationships. They never have to ever question why they’re attracted, why they’re attractive, or even when they noticed that attraction.
A gay person is aware of all of things almost too much of the time, the lucky ones maybe only the second. There are still so many countries that can persecute and execute someone for being gay. The mere presence is enough, the mere existence is enough for those types of grounds. There are states in the United States sill that under the guise of “religious freedom” activity refuse to provide gay people services. The US itself only passed marriage equality in 2015. Do you remember that? Because I do. I remember, because until that moment, the idea of having a long-term future with anyone let alone a family was a fantasy.
This is in the United States, a modernized country where around 50% of the population doesn’t believe I deserve the same rights afforded to them. I’m lucky though. There are gays in countries that make the Salem witch trials look like child’s play. There are still gays being born and who will grow up in that world and wonder every day what is wrong with them. There will be some that even end their lives because they can’t fathom another moment in an existence that they aren’t wanted.
That is why we still have Pride. We have pride to remind the world that we still have to fight most days for our voices to be heard; that we still have to be our own advocates because the ones making the laws and rules don’t ever consider us as part of the equation, either through ignorance or willful malice; that there are still gay men, women, nonbinary people out there that would rather die than be themselves. We still have Pride to celebrate ourselves, to remember the ones that took the first step into gunfire to give us a chance to fight back, to mourn for those who didn’t survive the AIDS crisis while our politicians literally laughed at our faces, to imagine that one day when people stop giving a shit about who we are attracted to, and for a future where Pride becomes a true celebration.
That’s why I need Pride at least.