Pride 2017

This is a little late, but I wanted to post it anyway. You can check it out on my tumblr, too.

I am a trans queer guy and this year I am not just celebrating pride for myself, I am celebrating for everyone who can’t. I’m celebrating for the people that live in countries that kill queer people. I am celebrating pride for the people that live in religious homes that criticize and demean queer individuals. I am celebrating for the people whose lives were taken last year by a homophobic racist. Rest in peace, Orlando victims.

I’m celebrating for the trans women of color that fear for their life every time they walk on the streets or go into public bathrooms. I'm celebrating for Marsha P. Johnson, the black transgender woman that started pride; we'd be nowhere without you. I'm celebrating for the Stonewall riots. I'm celebrating for the Marriage Equality Act. I am celebrating for Oscar Wilde and all of his queerness.

I’m celebrating for the bisexual men who are told they can only be gay or straight. I am celebrating for the queer men of color that don't get a lot of representation. I’m celebrating for the lesbians that are sexualized for and by straight men in porn, television, and movies, and tossed aside by straight women. I'm celebrating for the stereotyped, u-hauling, flannel-wearing lesbians, and the lip-gloss, high-heel-wearing lesbians.

I’m celebrating for the gay men that are treated like objects by straight women because they want a “gay best friend” and ridiculed by straight men. I'm celebrating for the “too gay” queer men and the “not gay enough” queer men. I'm here for the queer jocks, and the masculine and buff gays.

I’m celebrating for the non-binary people who get left out of trans discussions and are invalidated by transphobes. I am celebrating every pronoun, every gender, and every identity.

I’m celebrating for trans men who don’t have a huge place in the media and are fetishized by cis women. I am celebrating for the trans men of color that aren't at the front of the media. I am celebrating for the trans men that want to take hormones, need to take hormones, or don't want to take hormones. I am here for the men that get top surgery, gender reassignment surgery, and no surgery at all.

I’m celebrating for the aromantics and the asexuals who ARE a part of this community, even if you are straight and cis.

I’m celebrating for the pansexual people who are told their sexuality isn’t real. I am celebrating for the people who are told they're just bisexuals who want to be special snowflakes.

I’m celebrating for the people in and out of the closet. I am celebrating for the out and proud, the out and kind of still afraid, the not out but wants to be. I am celebrating for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, queer, non-binary, gender non-conforming, pansexual individuals. I am so proud of all of you.

I’m celebrating for anyone who can’t and everyone who can. I am celebrating for all queer lives and voices.

This pride I am celebrating because the queer community is alive. I’m celebrating because it is 2017, we have a monster in office, and we are still alive. We are still fighting. We are still trying our hardest to make this Earth a place we can feel safe on. I am celebrating because I still have hope. I still have hope for the next generations. I am celebrating because I have something to celebrate, and I hope you do, too.