Pride
Pride is an interesting concept. One of the seven deadly sins, yet also the most sought after emotion by children of stoic parents. Pride is the feeling of satisfaction that one has when considering someone's actions, or, more fundamentally, their character, their very existential composition.
More interesting is the fact that having pride in another person, or their acts, is not lexigraphically differentiated from having pride in yourself, or your own acts. It seems to me that those concepts are drastically different, unless you're rocking some serious buddhist we are all one integrated entity shit.
Having pride in another is never bad, and always good. Pride in another means you have connected to someone, and made yourself larger and more completed. You are more capable of touching the world because you now consider the actions of another your own. Even if it means taking credit, it doesn't mean taking credit away. I look foward to when we are one integrated entity and shit and everyone takes pride in everyone else :P
Self-pride is the dangerous one. That's the deadly sin: the belief that who you are and what you've done is wonderful and worthy of praise. Wait, is that dangerous, really? Granted, some people and some action are not worthy of praise; instead, they deserve remonstrance, or even castigation. But even among the monsters, does self-pride make anything worse? Does it power their terrible acts, reinforce them? I honestly doubt it. I think that having pride in oneself is advantageous even if you have lots to work on. I think that casting pride as a deadly sin was just one in a vast series of attempts to belittle the populace by a religious institution that most significantly thrived when its constituency felt small and flawed, felt that they needed healing and guidance; NEEDED, not merely would be helped by.
So let me talk about the queers.
Today is the LGBT Pride parade and festival in Gainesville. That's what it says on the sign anyway. To quote wiki: The initialism LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures and is sometimes used to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.[2][5] To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer and/or are questioning their sexual identity as LGBTQ, recorded since 1996.[6]
On the one hand, some intersex people who want to be included in LGBT groups suggest an extended initialism LGBTI (recorded since 1999[7]).[8] This initialism "LGBTI" is used in all parts of "The Activist's Guide" of the Yogyakarta Principles in Action.[9] Furthermore, the initialism LGBTIH has seen use in India to encompass the hijra third gender identity and the related subculture.[10] More recently the catch-all term "Gender and Sexual Diversity" GSD has been proposed.
LGBT may also include additional "Q"s for "queer" or "questioning" (sometimes abbreviated with a question mark and sometimes used to mean anybody not literally L, G, B or T) which can then look like e.g., "LGBTQ" or "LGBTQQ""
All this hubbub about labels. Always with the labels. I know each group wants their agenda to be taken especially and seriously. But the concise path appeals to me. All of these bitches are queer. And despite being a heterosexual cis-male, I am queer too. And proud.
Queer simply means: not appreciated by mainstream society. And we desire that appreciation. More than that, we desire pride. We want people to see us for what we are and love us. Understand that we are your siblings, gender-regardless.
And love is what it is all about, folks, not sex. You can say how proud you are that your penis has never touched a vagina, but, y'know, I don't really believe you. I think your pride comes from the fact instead, that you find people of your same gender attractive, and therefore you want to have love with them.
It's about acceptance, and appreciation. That's what pride is about. And we queers who live on the fringes of society's acceptance are here trying to tell you that we accept and appreciate each other. It's not hard, and it has plenty of rewards. Join us.
More interesting is the fact that having pride in another person, or their acts, is not lexigraphically differentiated from having pride in yourself, or your own acts. It seems to me that those concepts are drastically different, unless you're rocking some serious buddhist we are all one integrated entity shit.
Having pride in another is never bad, and always good. Pride in another means you have connected to someone, and made yourself larger and more completed. You are more capable of touching the world because you now consider the actions of another your own. Even if it means taking credit, it doesn't mean taking credit away. I look foward to when we are one integrated entity and shit and everyone takes pride in everyone else :P
Self-pride is the dangerous one. That's the deadly sin: the belief that who you are and what you've done is wonderful and worthy of praise. Wait, is that dangerous, really? Granted, some people and some action are not worthy of praise; instead, they deserve remonstrance, or even castigation. But even among the monsters, does self-pride make anything worse? Does it power their terrible acts, reinforce them? I honestly doubt it. I think that having pride in oneself is advantageous even if you have lots to work on. I think that casting pride as a deadly sin was just one in a vast series of attempts to belittle the populace by a religious institution that most significantly thrived when its constituency felt small and flawed, felt that they needed healing and guidance; NEEDED, not merely would be helped by.
So let me talk about the queers.
Today is the LGBT Pride parade and festival in Gainesville. That's what it says on the sign anyway. To quote wiki: The initialism LGBT is intended to emphasize a diversity of sexuality and gender identity-based cultures and is sometimes used to refer to anyone who is non-heterosexual or non-cisgender instead of exclusively to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.[2][5] To recognize this inclusion, a popular variant adds the letter Q for those who identify as queer and/or are questioning their sexual identity as LGBTQ, recorded since 1996.[6]
On the one hand, some intersex people who want to be included in LGBT groups suggest an extended initialism LGBTI (recorded since 1999[7]).[8] This initialism "LGBTI" is used in all parts of "The Activist's Guide" of the Yogyakarta Principles in Action.[9] Furthermore, the initialism LGBTIH has seen use in India to encompass the hijra third gender identity and the related subculture.[10] More recently the catch-all term "Gender and Sexual Diversity" GSD has been proposed.
LGBT may also include additional "Q"s for "queer" or "questioning" (sometimes abbreviated with a question mark and sometimes used to mean anybody not literally L, G, B or T) which can then look like e.g., "LGBTQ" or "LGBTQQ""
All this hubbub about labels. Always with the labels. I know each group wants their agenda to be taken especially and seriously. But the concise path appeals to me. All of these bitches are queer. And despite being a heterosexual cis-male, I am queer too. And proud.
Queer simply means: not appreciated by mainstream society. And we desire that appreciation. More than that, we desire pride. We want people to see us for what we are and love us. Understand that we are your siblings, gender-regardless.
And love is what it is all about, folks, not sex. You can say how proud you are that your penis has never touched a vagina, but, y'know, I don't really believe you. I think your pride comes from the fact instead, that you find people of your same gender attractive, and therefore you want to have love with them.
It's about acceptance, and appreciation. That's what pride is about. And we queers who live on the fringes of society's acceptance are here trying to tell you that we accept and appreciate each other. It's not hard, and it has plenty of rewards. Join us.