{"id":4589,"date":"2020-05-22T13:03:54","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T17:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4589"},"modified":"2020-05-22T13:03:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T17:03:54","slug":"what-it-means-to-have-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?p=4589","title":{"rendered":"What it means to have pride"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Geneve Thomas-Palmer<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Communicator Online<br \/>\nAnn Arbor Community HS<br \/>\n1st Place Division 4, News Writing<br \/>\nBylined Opinion Article<\/p>\n<p><b>JUDGING CRITERIA<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Topic relevant to interests and\/or welfare of school or students<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wins reader interest with\u00a0 aimpelling lead that urges action<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Presents evidence\/interpretation in logical sequence<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">States issue; uses effective examples, facts and comparisons to clarify<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Deals with specific issue; avoids preaching, rhetoric and cliches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shows sufficient thought and knowledge of subject, developed with personal style<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proposes solution where appropriate<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sentences, paragraphs of varied length; written clearly, concisely and vividly<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Proper diction\/grammar<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is the clearest memory I have of elementary school: in first grade, a girl in my class kissed her female friend on the cheek and my gym teacher broke them apart, saying it was inappropriate. I had that teacher for my entire elementary school education, but I would never see her that angry again. The image of that teacher is forever burned into my brain; for years, I believed I remembered her so clearly because I loved her class so much. Now I think that it might be because that incident was the first time I was shown that a woman loving another woman was inherently\u00a0wrong.<\/p>\n<p>It didn\u2019t stop there. Neighborhood parties my family and I frequented were full of happily married husbands and wives boasting about their kids; my favorite books and movies featured young girls lusting after boys; it was decided that I was no longer allowed to have sleepovers with my male friends \u2014 my only friends at the time. When I started daydreaming about marrying and raising children with the girls at my middle school, I was scared. Growing up, everything around me told me I was supposed to fall for a boy, and when the idea of gayness was mentioned, it was often as the butt of a joke or rude\u00a0comment.<\/p>\n<p>I still struggle with my lesbian identity; there is a part of me that feels wrong for being gay. Ever since I came out, I\u2019ve worked towards unlearning all of the self-hate that has been built into me since that day in gym class. I am constantly working and struggling to be proud in my sexual orientation.<\/p>\n<p>There is, however, an institution created with the intent to actively shame queer people for who they love: conversion therapy. Conversion therapy is a practice in which people who are often regarded as mental health professionals use various methods \u2014 from physical harm such as electrocuting or drugging patients to emotional harm such as encouraging isolation from friends and family and making patients feel guilty for their same-sex attraction \u2014 in an attempt to influence LGBTQIA+ people to adopt heterosexuality.<\/p>\n<p>It is still legal to perform conversion therapy in Ann Arbor, even on\u00a0minors.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve struggled my entire life to accept myself and be proud with who I am; it baffles me that there are people profiting from making gay people feel dirty and wrong and disgusted with themselves. Nobody makes their living off of shaming straight people for being straight.<\/p>\n<p>But, in August of 2019, several hundred marchers paraded the streets of Boston, carrying signs reading statements such as \u201cStraight Lives Matter,\u201d \u201cMake Normalcy Normal Again,\u201d and \u201cTake Back the Rainbow.\u201d This event was called the Straight Pride\u00a0Parade.<\/p>\n<p>Preceding this, the organization Super Happy Fun America (SHFA) made a request to fly a straight pride flag they created in a flag raising ceremony at the Boston City Hall. This was one of two flag requests that has been rejected by the city of Boston (the other was a Christian flag), which flew over 280 flags as of October 2019. In response, SHFA organized their Straight Pride\u00a0event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEver since 2017, we\u2019ve been fighting against the city,\u201d said Samson Racioppi, the Grassroots Organizer at SHFA. \u201cWe wanted to demonstrate to the city that we\u2019re not going away. Whether they like us or not, they\u2019re going to have to deal with\u00a0us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In my interview with Racioppi, he expressed how he, as a straight male, feels discriminated against based on his sexuality: queer people are represented in film, the media doesn\u2019t cover attacks that have occured against him, the family unit (one man and one woman raising a child) is being eroded. He believes that \u201cheterosexual values are under\u00a0attack.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the media fails to report on the fact that we\u2019re being attacked, we have to come up with more creative ways to get their attention,\u201d Racioppi said. \u201cOur way of getting their attention was organizing the straight pride\u00a0parade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The issues Raccioppi faces as a heterosexual in no way compare to the historical and systemic oppression of the LGBTQIA+ community. Queer minors who come out to their parents can face disownment and homelessness, having been kicked out of their homes. An employer can still fire someone based solely on their sexuality or gender identity \u2014 equal rights still do not legally apply to queer citizens. Gay people were legally barred from immigrating to the United States until\u00a01990.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a level of fear that comes with being queer that straight people just can\u2019t understand,\u201d said Sage Iwashyna, the President of CHS\u2019 Queer Straight Alliance (QSA). \u201cThey can\u2019t understand what it\u2019s like to be afraid to love someone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are things I have to worry about solely because of my lesbian identity. My options for colleges are limited, as I have to make sure I attend a school where I will be safe. Every time I go in for my yearly check up with my pediatritian, I fill out a questionnaire in which I am asked if I am or think I might be queer, then have to sit through an uncomfortable discussion with my doctor about my sexuality. At the camp where I work in the summer, I worry that, in being openly queer, my campers\u2019 parents will later complain. My attraction to women is often questioned, and I am asked to explain why I\u2019m gay and how I know I\u2019m gay and am I sure I\u2019m gay? There have been times I\u2019ve been the only queer person in a group of people and have been asked to speak for the experiences entire LGBTQIA+ community. I have to worry about my physical safety at all times \u2014 there are high rates of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community, which is where gay pride originated\u00a0from.<\/p>\n<p>On June 12, 1969, police raided The Stonewall Inn, a gay bar. This was relatively common practice at the time; the officer in charge, Seymour Pine, had performed a similar raid at the same bar just four days preceding the Stonewall Riots. At the time, men could be arrested for wearing drag, and women must be wearing at least three pieces of \u201cfeminine clothing\u201d to avoid jailing. That summer night, however, is often recognized as a catalyst for the queer movement towards equality because LGBTQIA+ customers fought\u00a0back.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Queer] pride was a protest,\u201d Iwashyna said. \u201cIt was a call for justice, a call for people to wake up and understand that queer people are people who need rights and who need to stop being murdered.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nearly 50 years following the Stonewall Riots, Omar Saddiqui Mateen of Orlando, FL opened fire in a queer nightclub, Pulse, injuring more than 50 and killing 49. This is the second most deadly mass shooting in all of American history. Half a century of fighting for rights, equality and pride, and there is still widespread violence against queer\u00a0people.<\/p>\n<p>Straight pride, beyond mocking the significance of LGBTQIA+ pride, is contorted in its name: pride. Throughout my life there has been an endless struggle for pride in my gayness. Until 1991, it was illegal to be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community \u2014 to be proud and queer was criminal, to be wrong in every aspect of the word. Heterosexuality has never been made so illegitimate. Straight people don\u2019t have to unlearn years of social cues showing them it is perverse and dirty to be proud. There is nothing wrong with having pride in heterosexuality, but to boast about it in such a manner as the Straight Pride Parade is an affront to the hardships of LGBTQIA+ people, who had to fight for their pride.<\/p>\n<p>More than that, Straight Pride takes focus away from the effort of queer people to gain equal rights, which is one of the main purposes of gay pride.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStraight pride demeans queer people and our movement,\u201d Iwashyna said. \u201cIt takes it and it twists it and it creates and feeds into this idea that queer people aren\u2019t actually fighting for\u00a0rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Everyone deserves the freedom to speak their mind without fear of repercussions. If SHFA wants to fly their straight flag, they should fly it. But they shouldn\u2019t call their movement pride. They should never compare their request to fly a flag being rejected to the violence and systematic discrimination that queer people face. There are more pressing issues than not being allowed to fly a flag \u2014 let\u2019s focus on\u00a0those.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/communicatorchs.atavist.com\/straight-pride\">Click here for the story.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Geneve Thomas-Palmer The Communicator Online Ann Arbor Community HS 1st Place Division 4, News Writing Bylined Opinion Article JUDGING CRITERIA Topic relevant to interests and\/or welfare of school or students Wins reader interest with\u00a0 aimpelling lead that urges action Presents evidence\/interpretation in logical sequence States issue; uses effective examples, facts and comparisons to clarify [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,4],"tags":[175,23],"class_list":["post-4589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-bylinedopinionarticle","category-nw","tag-2019-20","tag-division4","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joel Beeker","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=9"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-1c1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4589\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}