Hatred of LGBT people has always been belittling: you were seen as diseased, perverted, disgusting, weak, laughable, pathetic, worthless. If you use it to achieve success, the end result gets murky. If you use the false pretense to survive, it’s sad. Why should you prefer to be anything that you’re not? It makes you complicit with bigotry. In the same way that Jews might present themselves as gentile and “high-yaller” blacks might present themselves as white - pride makes the very idea offensive. Not everyone who was gay or lesbian was capable of “passing” - putting a straight face on being in the closet. It was the basis for coming out: letting the world know that you are gay and not hiding it. (Photo courtesy Ed Christie)įor gay people of my generation, pride was a key to happiness and self-fulfillment. Brucie Bear and Harvey Fierstein at New York’s Pride Parade, 1989. But to the extent that it’s exclusionary, about yourself and no one else, it can be hurtful and worse. To the extent that it means self-love and self-respect, it’s essential and a positive force. Pride, being one of the seven deadly sins, has good and bad sides to it.
