LGBT PRIDE: “SINNING” OUR WAY TO A BETTER WORLD

This is LGBT Pride week in San Francisco. And pride, it was recently explained to me, is a sin.

This insight came by way of a stranger commenting on a news story about the Orlando club shooting. The argument that ensued took some weird turns, including an attempt to perform an exorcism on me via the Internet.

(I didn’t feel a thing. Those movies must really ham it up.) That’s a story for another time, though.

Actually, this looks downright relaxing. I haven’t slept that heavy in years.

To be honest, I agree: Pride (and pride) is a sin, sure. What I dispute is whether that’s necessarily such a bad thing.

Pride (the emotion) is just knowing your own worth. And LGBT Pride is one of the most remarkable social movements of the last 200 years. Only a generation ago, coming out of the closet meant losing your job, going to jail, fearing for your safety, and, sometimes, your life.

And it still means those things for some, sadly. Even so, we now live in a world where millions assemble to publicly proclaim this onetime “shame” a point of personal pride. In those exact words. That’s…well, not a miracle, of course. But certainly miraculous.

FYI, I’m not a fan of all species of pride. “Straight pride,” for example, is so stupid that I’m amazed its advocates can eat soup without a lifeguard.

Freak Flag employed. Preparing to fly.

But if LGBT Pride is a sin, then it’s a sin that helps tens of millions of people. It’s a sin that saves lives. It’s a sin that undermines bullying and bigotry around the globe. If we’ve sinned our way to a better world just since 1969, then the only question is why we don’t all sin more often.

They say pride is of the devil. So is being queer, and partying, and having most of the sex you can possibly luck into in your life. In short, any number of perfectly normal things that make it worth getting out of bed in the morning. If an actual devil exists, he’s taking our quality of life to heart.

One other thing I agree with the fundamentalist types about: They say (frequently, whether you ask or not) that we’re all sinners. As near as I can tell, that’s true. But sooner or later, you’ve got to wonder if there’s a good reason.

Originally published 6.21.18

In the early days, sin was mostly a bid to stave off scurvy.