Anyone who has ever been to an LGBTQ+ Pride event will know that it is an atmosphere of love and celebration, of having pride in who you are and who you love and celebrating the liberation that this distinction brings. 

Having been to Houston Pride this past June, as a cisgender female on the queer spectrum, I was empowered by everyone’s displays of individuality and celebration. It was exhilarating to see so many people come together to celebrate love and each other, and to be uplifted and heard, not just by people that they related to, but also by city officials and police. Mayor Sylvester Turner even appeared atop a float in the parade. It was truly a space of unity and acceptance, and one of the most thrilling days of my life.

The experience that I and so many others bore witness to during events like these all over the nation is a complete antithesis of the scene that unfolded at the Boston “Straight Pride” parade that took place on Aug. 31. 

The event was organized by “Super Happy Fun America” (an unbelievably ironic name for such an organization), and consisted of a plethora of pro-Trump, pro-military and pro-hate propaganda that paraded through an extremely diverse and liberal city, so one can imagine the severe conflict of interest and uproar that accompanied the event. 

While I believe that everyone is entitled to and should be able to voice their own opinion in an appropriate, respectful way, the gaudy display of hate speech presented in Boston was a direct attack against the central message behind any true pride event: that inclusion, acceptance and diversity should be celebrated and used to unify the population, not tear them apart. 

For many, including myself, the entire reason for gay pride is visibility and celebration for those who have been historically put down by the masses. Straight, cis-gendered people have been seen and celebrated since the beginning of time. It’s my belief that those who supported the event felt extremely insecure and offended that they were being left out of something that for the first time wasn’t about them, and couldn’t stand the thought of themselves being pushed aside for a less visible minority group. 

It’s ironic that a group of people that have been harassed and oppressed as a minority for centuries was able to outnumber and drown out the protests being practiced within the streets of the city with messages of love. Even Boston’s mayor, Marty Walsh, discouraged the event, advocating for other celebrations of the city and discrediting the parade as something that the city of Boston was not truly advocating for. 

As an advocate for civil rights and inclusion, I feel that the attendee’s attempt to voice their rudimentary opinion further propelled the agenda of separation and shame that currently plagues the nation’s queer communities. While ignorantly claiming to join the fight inequality, the participants in “Straight Pride” were being counterintuitive in the name of respect and were ultimately insensitive and self-absorbed. 

Overall, the display was a feeble attempt at rationalizing people’s narrow-minded insecurities and misconceptions that turned into a direct attack against the beautiful celebration that the LGBTQ+ community has built within recent decades. In short, anyone offended by actual Pride events: Get over it. We’re here, we’re queer, and we celebrate our pride without fear.