LGBT & St. Patrick's Day
It's come to my attention that someone on my Facebook friends' list doesn't believe that the LGBT have any place at the St. Patrick's Day parade, that we should keep our "sparkly noses" out of it. While I am fairly used to this attitude toward the LGBT community, this particular area of desired exclusion is NOT going under the rug. Besides the fact that it implies that LGBT people are not part of the community and therefore shouldn't be part of community events like parades, it either forgets or ignores that any LGBT people are of Irish descent. Or that any of them honor their ancestry. No, we're too concerned with nancing about, being catty, and covering ourselves in glitter. Right? (Hence the glittery noses.)
Fuck. You.
Besides the fact that the person in question is just another garden variety American, in no position of authority over who should be allowed to represent Irishness, *I am* very much involved in my Irish heritage. I'm an American, and I don't pretend to have been born anywhere else. But this is where I came from. This is where much of my family came from. To me, Irishness isn't just a one-day-a-year excuse to hit the bars. It's 365 days a year written into my genetics. It's a language that I study, a history, a wealth of music, literature, and culture, a land that I've fallen in love with. It's family, and it's mine.
If anyone belongs in a St. Patrick's Day parade, it's this queer here.
So, to anyone of a similar opinion, if you want to pretend that the LGBT aren't part of your community, that's your right. And frankly, I wouldn't suffer from lack of your company. But if you want to get exclusionary, then stay the hell out of my holiday.
Fuck. You.
Besides the fact that the person in question is just another garden variety American, in no position of authority over who should be allowed to represent Irishness, *I am* very much involved in my Irish heritage. I'm an American, and I don't pretend to have been born anywhere else. But this is where I came from. This is where much of my family came from. To me, Irishness isn't just a one-day-a-year excuse to hit the bars. It's 365 days a year written into my genetics. It's a language that I study, a history, a wealth of music, literature, and culture, a land that I've fallen in love with. It's family, and it's mine.
If anyone belongs in a St. Patrick's Day parade, it's this queer here.
So, to anyone of a similar opinion, if you want to pretend that the LGBT aren't part of your community, that's your right. And frankly, I wouldn't suffer from lack of your company. But if you want to get exclusionary, then stay the hell out of my holiday.