June is Pride Month and many communities, businesses and homes are displaying symbols of pride, often rainbow flags. And, every year, there is a small group of people who complain. Why is there no “Straight Pride” month, they ask. Or, more commonly, “I’m fine with gay people, but why do they have to rub our faces in it.”
Not to be divisive, but Pride is not about those people. Sure, plenty of members of the LGBTQ+ community celebrate who they are during Pride Month. But, symbols of Pride, like the ubiquitous rainbow flags, can serve a much more important message.
They send a message of belonging. They tell LGBTQ+ Americans and Mainers, “You are welcome here.”
Sadly, that message remains necessary today as efforts to diminish LGBTQ+ Americans are on the rise.
Despite great strides toward equality, there are growing efforts to roll back the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, especially those who are transgender.
Just this week, RSU 40, in the midcoast, eliminated a policy meant to support transgender students. The district’s school board voted to end the policy even though most speakers at public meetings and the superintendent supported keeping it.
One speaker at a May 16 school board meeting, who was identified only as Val from Waldoboro and is transgender, said removing the policy would send a message to trans kids that the district does not believe they belong in the community.
Val lost a friend in high school to suicide, the BDN reported in May. Research has found that 82 percent of transgender people have considered suicide, and 40 percent have attempted suicide. The numbers are even higher for transgender youth, and they are higher than the youth population at large.
“The safety and well-being of trans and gender-nonconforming kids in our schools depends on your willingness to see them, care about them and protect them,” Val told the RSU 40 board.
That is an essential message this year: We must continue to see, care about, and protect people who are LGBTQ+.
Symbols of pride are one way to do that. A flag or pin can send a vital message to the gay student who is bullied at school. Or the teacher who hides a picture of their spouse for fear of backlash. Or the transgender teen who was kicked out of their home.
These symbols and other messages of welcoming and love remind our LGBTQ+ friends, neighbors, family members and visitors that they are valued. They are welcome. They are loved. They matter.
Of course, symbols only go so far. Elected officials in many states, from school board members to governors and members of Congress, are working to roll back basic rights for LGBTQ+ Americans, especially those who are transgender. Many of these efforts literally seek to erase LGBTQ+ people from our history and our present, as if they don’t exist or don’t deserve the same rights as everyone else. This is insidious and dangerous.
Supreme Court justices have suggested that some of these rights should be reconsidered, even eliminated.
So, now more than ever, Pride Month is a time for celebration, but also for a recommitment to the ongoing work of fostering diversity of inclusion while pushing back against efforts to diminish and erase our LGBTQ+ colleagues, friends and family.
