Got Pride?

I seem to be on a two-week rotation. Hmmm.

Update: Senorita Rosita Luisa's teeth are fabulous. Thank you for asking.

Today is Gay Pride Parade Day in Chicago. It's also my day of birth. Win-win! Perhaps I can find some rainbow cake to eat so I can have a two-for-one celebration.

Now, I know there are a WHOLE lot of people who (1) don't think there is a need for LGBT pride day/week/month, (2) don't accept the whole LGBT thing, and (3) think all those dykes on bikes and underwear clad dancing boys are going to hell. So be it. It's my pride and my birthday, so I'm sticking to it.

Don't you be shitting on my parade.

In this day and age with an astonishing 40% of Americans drinking the hate-filled, fear-based  Kool-aid, a parade like this is needed--more than ever. It's just a matter of time. First, they came for the "colored." They are now onto the "illegals." They're gonna need a new demographic soon enough. Think I'm kidding? Just look up the beliefs of the white-haired man standing next to our propaganda-pooping dictator-wanna-be.

I've seen some pretty awful things in my life, up close and personal. I have some hate-tainted days of which I would rather forget. I've been spit on, yelled at, prayed upon, threatened and assaulted. So, I have data of which to base my concerns in this day and age of ridiculousness.

I was talking to a co-worker last week. This person spontaneously went on and on about today's reverse-discrimination, how the blacks are this and that, how those illegals are sucking up all the entitlements, sponging off all of us, causing crimes, blah blah blah. I didn't say anything--mostly because my jaw was on the ground. He went on to say how "it's gonna happen soon" and how "we" have had enough. Meaning? This fifty-something lower-class white man isn't gonna sit around and take it from those blacks and illegals and no one is taking his guns and... you know the drill. (I'm not reading into this. I'm not making this up or exaggerating. I'm actually being nice about what he said.) While trying to move the conversation elsewhere, I mentioned how our new neighbors are quite the piece of work (that's a whole 'nother story). The response? "I bet those neighbors aren't European Americans, are they?"

I know "this" is out there but I wasn't expecting it at work. He and I work in a "snowflake, liberal" field which helps those in severe poverty, those marginalized by our country, those found "lesser than." I serve those who receive entitlements. People of color, people with mental illness, people just trying to survive. People. That's who we work with: people--unfortunately slapped with labels and filled with mental illness for which they did not ask.

Why this guys works with "us" is beyond me. After all, we are basically what he hates. I work in a field that definitely does not believe in his "those kids SHOULD be separated from their families--teach them a lesson" kind of mentality.

If someone like "this" works in a field like ours, it says a lot. It says that 40% is crawling closer and closer and that we should be very concerned.

So, a gay pride day/week/month/parade IS needed. This is no time to stop partying in the streets. Besides, it is still legal to discriminate based on sexual orientation in more states than not. It'd be easy enough to go backwards to the days of Stonewall.

I'd love to go to the pride parade today....it IS really fun... but, there are no bathrooms and the traffic is horrific. Read: I'm too lazy and too pee-filled to go. I went to the parade on my birthday many years ago--I'm guessing something like 1990. We went with a gaggle of friends. It was indeed fun and love-filled and colorful and surprising and silly and safe. I fear that today won't be safe. I know, I know, I shouldn't have fear, as thoughts are powerful. But, the memes on Facebook--and, my co-worker--remind me that life might not be as safe-feeling as it's felt in the last decade.

You might be wondering if my co-worker knows I am gay. I have no idea how you could know me and NOT know that. Have you seen me? I'm a walking gay billboard. That said, he's never met the wife and I don't usually talk to him about anything other than the projects of which we're doing together and he certainly hasn't said anything suggesting he knows anything about anything. I fear that I might be on his agenda. Yes, agenda--I don't know what else to call it when someone says "the storm is coming." 

Today, I shall focus on my day of birth. The wife is busy making my annual Lemon-Blueberry cake. The dogs are happy and behaving and have clean breath. Pentatonix is playing.

And, that storm? 

I.am.the.storm. We've got this.