Pride – my Thoughts

Welcome to our readers and my thanks to those who thought that my contributions here mattered. I hope that we are building community once again. My name is Jeremy and you can find my Blog “The Evolution of Jeremiah” linked at the end of this post.

I wanted to say that I agree that “we” are killing our own, in our own communities. The focus of Gay Pride has moved from a “Pride” event to an obnoxious event of pretty buff men who do designer drugs and drink massive amounts of alcohol and try to “Out Queen” the next. The competition for beauty, wealth and attraction has overshadowed the real reason that we celebrate Pride, at least in my opinion having lived with AIDS/HIV for now 13 years. Things were very different a decade ago.

I saw a report on CTV News Net this evening that Toronto is spending upwards of $400,000.00 CAD on advertising for Gay Pride Nationally and Internationally.

Montreal, on the other hand, has nothing on the table as far as I know. Since funding has been cut Provincially. Our Gay Pride has been cut down, moved back on the calendar and it seems very muted from years past. Pride is changing in our fair city. But our Gay Pride is so fractured that I won’t be attending this year once again, because I don’t identify with the Pretty, Petulant, Obnoxious Gay Community. I just can’t be bothered to celebrate Community Pride when the community at large has offered nothing but division and political strife (in our immediate community).

I guess with age came wisdom and living with HIV/AIDS for so long, knowing what Pride meant to me and my community when AIDS and Death was staring us in the face, the celebration of family, friendship and community meant more to us then, because we knew many of us would not live to see it the following year, all that has changed.

The respectful “Pride for Life” has turned to a Pride of materialism and addiction, of division and hatred amid our own ranks, and the disrespect of those who are living with illness (HIV/AIDS) by those who are not is outrageous. That is why I do not celebrate Pride because the community that once was, is no more, and since I am clean and sober and my focus on life has changed since I got married a few years ago, being a Queen for a day doesn’t matter as much to me anymore, because there are far better things for me to spend my time doing, like writing, education, support and living each day for all it is worth.

So I am posting a piece of the article I wrote for Best Gay Blogs today and it is also posted on my blog as well, you can come read the rest of this post. I saw a discussion about PRIDE in the future, “Will we have Pride in 20 years?” I agree that the further gay makes it into the everyday lexicon of acceptance, we will begin to assimilate into community and the need to differentiate ourselves will become pointless.

I am a great supporter of the labeling of sexuality and life to end. Over the last 40 years I have watched what labels do to people across the board.

Nowadays when I work with young people “coming out” I tell them to go out into the world and not worry about differentiation and labels. Find a place to live, a good job and someone to love who will love you in return. And disclose only what you need to – to those who need to know.

How much easier life would be if the world was not so caught up in divisive labels – if we learned to live together in harmony, religiously, sexually orientedly, racially, and personally and politically. There is so much division in the world, that I sometimes wish that the LGBTQ people in the world would begin to change the world in ways that regular people could not.

We have seen so much hatred that couldn’t we at least begin to work to build communally and earthly, instead of worrying about differentiating ourselves from the whole of humanity? I mean, what if Pride became a unifying festival instead of a divisive one – we see this division happening worldwide in cities that LGBTQ Pride events are causing such problems.

If we were proud and knowledgeable you’d think that in today’s day and age, we would find a way to build bridges in communities instead of creating brush fires all over the world. So here are some of my thoughts on Pride as they came to me the other day…

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Today at age 40, I have certain views on living with AIDS and Pride and Sobriety. Not to mention being married and having learned all those lessons that took an entire lifetime to collect and now we teach those lessons to others.

Gay Pride is important. It is important because many men and women went to their deaths fighting for the privileges that some of you have today. Millions of men, women and children went to their deaths from the scourge of AIDS since the 1980’s. Many Gay Rights activists were jailed and persecuted and some were killed for their convictions and their lives. Gay Pride should be celebrated to make sure we remember those who came and went before us. Gay Pride should be celebrated as a “Life Celebration” and to remember those words,

“We are here, we are Queer, Get used to it!”

If we forget those who laid the foundations for Gay Pride so many years and decades ago, then PRIDE is a waste of time. We should not be arguing over politics within our own ranks. We should not be fractioned by language or religion, creed or political affiliation. PRIDE should be a gathering of the many celebrating the one important fact of Life, That we are here and that we survived, because so many did not.

What do I know at age 40 that you need to know? You can come by my blog and read my pages and participate in our community. Do not be afraid of the spiritual slant of my blog. I am still a Gay Man who has wisdom to share with anyone who wants to learn. There is more to being gay today for me than looking twenty one and bar hopping and drinking until I fall down or do something stupid. That’s why today I am sober and clean and I am alive. It has been 13 years since I was diagnosed with AIDS – and I have lived to tell the tale.

I remind you all, as you celebrate Pride that You Celebrate for the RIGHT reasons and not the WRONG reasons. That you remember why we celebrate Pride and why ‘Stonewall’ is so incredibly important to us as LGBT peoples.

Be Proud. Be Visible and FIGHT for what is right – For the Right reasons.

Blessings on Your Heads.

Read the rest of the article at: The Evolution of Jeremiah