Evil is the belief that exploring one’s identity should be relegated only to the select few privileged to be deemed “enough”. This stance is built on an underlying belief in purity, coupled with a binary perspective which does not exist in the spectrum-rich genius of nature.
We are not pure. We human beings are emergent messes/masses of opportunity, and as a race we thirst for education, for knowledge, and to know our place in this chaotic period of time we call life. We also yearn to know the peace and joy existent in our own bodies regardless of boundaries or lines constructed specifically to grant access, and certainly even moreso to gain power through an ability to deny.
We are born with a right to one thing only: our bodies equipped with emotions, spirit, and mind. That we strive to do no wrong to one another is at argument with our autonomous selves at times, a struggle which every individual must walk along and learn their balance within. This imperfect and rife-with-mistakes quest is the line. The journey. The story of our individual lives.
Please come to Pride and experience openness for other walks of life, openness to your own possibility, openness with one another pointing out the similarities and differences within our collective and ritualized proximity. Far be it for my queer-ass self to tell you how to navigate your journey, discover your kinks, or shake the hand of revelation, appreciation, friendship, admiration, happiness, pleasure, or love. It won’t be easy, fun, joyful, or pretty all of the time. We are complex, and that in itself is where perfection derives.
This protest is a party meant for liberation. It is a fierce cry to the patriarchy that we will not be repressed, suppressed, hidden, tortured, extinguished, killed, or denied. Those who take to the streets may not be our lovers but they are, in less distant ways than we sometimes may conceive, our friends and allies.
Bad behavior could be addressed authentically, not used as a weapon to “other” the hearts and minds of those who currently identify in a more mainstream way than we ourselves may do today. Being in whatever specific moment of our own journey we’re in and embracing whatever queerness we can within our bodies has been a journey. Admit that. Queers are referred to as “family” because we teach one another how to grow, how to love, how to better be. Believe in that family. Come to dinner. Participate.
Straight men shouldn’t be objectifying lesbians, just as gay men shouldn’t be grabbing the breasts of women and saying it’s “ok because they’re gay”. Cis women and lesbians should leave any TERF opinions they may have in the garbage at home, and bachelorettes must acknowledge the celebration surrounding them isn’t theirs to dominate. There is no yardstick measuring how tall you must be to get into Pride, merely a wish for freedom, celebration, support, visibility, and understanding. Save your velvet ropes and vitriol for harassers and bigots; those people inciting actual danger and damage; politicians signing restrictive and offensive, demoralizing, life threatening bills into law at this very moment we’re taking to the streets protesting. If you want to control a guest list, certainly have yourself a house party.
If I cannot find and cultivate my freedom despite (or as an essential truth because of) the differences surrounding me, what hope do I even have in this thing called living?
Play On My Friends,
~ Creature
This writing takes time, research, and consideration. It is my art.
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