What is Pride?

What is pride? What does it mean? More importantly, what does it mean to you?

I spent all of yesterday downtown. I joined a couple of friends (and their friends) for Can’t Stop the Serenity, a viewing of Serenity on a large screen. Proceeds from the tickets and the auction afterwards went to Equality Now, a charity in support of women’s equality. I hadn’t seen Serenity before, but knew it was part of the Firefly franchise. Plus, I’m a fan of Nathan Fillion and Jewel Staite. Oh, and before you ask, yes, methinks I am now a Browncoat.

After Serenity and the shindig afterwards, we went to check out the party that is Pride. And what a party it is, too! I’ve never gone down to Pride before, so it was an interesting experience. It is just one giant street party. We spent a fair amount of time at a bar on Church just sitting on the patio and enjoying the sights and sounds around us. It was also decided early on that I was the designated driver since I don’t drink. I was more than happy to oblige. Actually, I offered! I am quite capable of having a good time without alcohol.

Over the course of the evening, I was hugged by a woman I didn’t know, asked if I was lesbian, offered a shot of cranberry juice when everyone else was ordering shooters (my favourite moment of the night), saw women in costumes, saw men in drag and even saw a man with nothing on but his skin! Despite the amusement of it all, it got me thinking about pride and how we go about showing that we are proud of who and what we are. I am heterosexual. I like men. I have friends who are gay, bi and lesbian. I may be het, but I support the LGBT community. Everybody has the right to be proud of who and what they are. Gay, lesbian, bi, straight, black, white, Catholic, Mormon, atheist, agnostic… What does it matter? We are all HUMAN. We are flawed and we are perfect. We are capable of horrific monstrosities, and we are capable of immense love.

Love. That’s what I believe pride is. I believe pride is about not only loving ourselves but each other and not being afraid to express that love. Love is what keeps this ship in the air and what makes her home.