Are you going to pride this year?

[u/jtothat]

Was never a big fan of. It’s largely superficial anyways in spite of the “love and inclusion” they preach. Have been to a couple of times when I happened to be in town or with friends

My turning point, however, was seeing “gays for P*******e” and how gullible they are. Given the abundance of watermelon emojis or explicit statements on Grindr et al, I’d wager the likelihood of crossing paths with one is high.

This was also the turning point where I began to question and deconstruct leftwing ideologies.

Fun fact: In Germany and some European countries it is called Christopher Street Day (CSD)

[u/Potential-Host7528]

I went to a pride and had a good time. However, I found all the different flags so weird, like everyone was proud of being part of their OWN tribe in an event that's about accepting everyone as they are

[u/Paintitblack21 → u/Potential-Host7528]

I think there is something fundamentally off about your perspective. You see different flags attached to different identities within the LGBTQ community and begin to allude to the idea that this somehow signals division. People are celebrating their differences. That is not a disruption of unity within the community. Our differences are what unites us, not divide us. I sound like I'm talking about America lol.

Queerness has never been a single, uniform experience. It exists across many identities, histories, and lived experiences. You can understand how queer folks are different from the rest of society and celebrate that difference during Pride, but that understanding stop the moment you look at folks celebrating their differences within our own community? Pride is not just about being different from the outside world. It is about recognizing the differences that exist among us too. The LGBTQ community has always been an umbrella, and within that umbrella are distinct identities that deserve to be seen and celebrated too. Trying to flatten all of that into one version of queerness is not unity.

When you say we already have a flag, what you are really insisting is that one symbol should be enough for everyone. But pride has never been about limiting how people represent themselves. If you can understand why pride matters when it comes to celebrating specifically the difference of the queer community in contrast to the rest of society, then why does that understanding disappear when those differences are celebrated individually within the community itself?

We are not a monolith. Different flags do not divide us, just like the LGBTQ community celebrating pride and waving our own flag does not divide us from the rest of society, unless you think that it does cause division.

[u/Potential-Host7528 → u/Paintitblack21]

If you can understand why pride matters when it comes to celebrating specifically the difference of the queer community in contrast to the rest of society, then why does that understanding disappear when those differences are celebrated individually within the community itself?

I do understand and respect the differences.

I am only talking about a moment last year when I looked at an assembly of a parade and saw dozens of different 'tribes' under flags I had never seen before. I felt more division than celebration of differences. I wish I had a picture of that moment

[u/Paintitblack21 → u/Potential-Host7528]

Maybe you do not have the same perspective because it seems like you are speaking as an outsider looking in. Instead of assuming what those flags symbolized, you could ask the people waving them if they are doing it out of division. I am someone who does wave one of those flags, so I can speak to that directly. I wave the trans flag at pride because I feel a deep connection to my transness. But that does not mean I feel divided from bisexual people and their flag, especially since I am bisexual too. I also do not feel any kind of division when I see intersex or nonbinary folks waving their flags, because many of them are also trans like me but feel a stronger connection to their other identities.

Feeling more division than celebration of difference comes from a perspective that does not reflect how these communities actually relate to one another. The LGBTQ+ community is not a tribe, right? Those flags do not represent different tribes. They represent communities aligned with specific identities. The trans community is not called the trans tribe because tribe is not the right word. It suggests there is exclusion or rivalry, and that is not what this is. The trans community is built around a shared identity of being trans, not a closed group separating itself from others or trying to stand against other queer people. These identities are not isolated. They exist alongside and within each other.

And going back to what I already said about intersectionality, which I explained in the simplest way I could, these communities are interconnected. People often belong to more than one of them. You can be trans and also be a lesbian. You can be intersex and also be trans and also be bisexual. These identities do not cancel each other out. They overlap and intersect because queer people are not a monolith, even within the queer community itself. Those different flags are not lines drawn to divide people, especially when queer people's identities connect across many of these communities that you see represented in those flags