I love large umbrellas just as much as the next person, and by far the largest and best umbrella I know of is the word ‘queer’. While not everyone in the LGBTQIA+ community identifies as queer, it is by far my favourite way to refer to the group. The large acronym can be a mouthful and ‘rainbow’ doesn’t always sit right with me. Queer is the best umbrella.

For one month a year, the powerhouse that is capitalism brushes dust off of their rainbow icons to stand with the queers. I’ve written a quick song to encapsulate this time of the year. “Hey June”, a cover of The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”:

Hey June,

Don’t let me down

Take those rainbow icons

And make them better!!!!!!!!

 

Like for real, please, make it better. Pride means so much more than chucking a rainbow on things and banner-waving while screaming “hey hey look at me and how I appreciate this wonderful rainbow community but please ignore the shitty communities of sweatshops we use”. Just like any day, week, or month of recognition, pride month is riddled with companies run by the straight and cis-gendered to show off how good of a person they are. Pride is so much more than that! Where is the showcase of actual queer people succeeding in this capitalist world? Show me those instead of Mark Zuckerburg doing his weird lizard thing in front of a pride flag.

Let me reiterate that boy, oh boy, queer is a very large umbrella and what is the use of such a large umbrella if everyone is gonna be the same? Correct, there is no use. So don’t even slightly think that the queer experience and pride is the same for each of us. While most of us can sympathise with the nerve-wracking feeling that comes with coming out, even this is not the same for everyone. Heck, I didn’t even really come out; I just left it for other people to figure out. It’s like girls on Instagram who soft release their boyfriends by casually dropping them into posts- yeah, that’s me with my whole identity.

My point is, everyone is navigating this life differently. You can ask a handful of people what pride means to them and come out with different answers, fueled by different experiences. In fact, I did this to save you the time. Because the queer experience can be so drastically different, to be sure I was comfortable writing around such a broad umbrella topic, I did some inquiry into what pride is to the old Instagram followers.

Pride is confidence. It is love. It is being true to yourself. This encapsulates many of the responses I got, flooded with positivity and love and showcasing pride as, well, something to be proud of. And it is! It is literally in the name and one of the whole points of pride is to be unapologetically ourselves and to love ourselves. For way too long has the queer community had to live in the shadows and hide who they are. BITCH IT’S 2022 WE AIN’T GOT TIME FOR THAT SHIT NO MORE. It’s time to be gay, do crime, and yea be confident about who you are!

But also pride is about acknowledging that not everyone in the world is able to do this safely. Be gay, do crime, but in some places that is one in the same. Pride is about also loving our queer whānau who can’t come out or be who they would ideally love to be. For some people, it just isn’t safe and their circumstances, brought on by some sad thinking, doesn’t allow it. For all that love we feel for ourselves and fellow takatāpui, this love has got to be extended to those deep in a safety closet who aren’t getting the love they need.

Stop rainbow washing shit every June for a lil fun half-assed activism. Instead, educate yourselves on the intersectioanlity of being queer and go kiss who ever you want! I leave you with another song this time not poorly written by me but the queer queen Lady Gaga:

No matter gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgender life

I’m on the right track, baby, I was born to survive.

Rejoice and love yourself today

Cause, baby, you were born this way.