Iowa City Pride will be happening this weekend downtown. Key points: Noon march from Green Square Park through downtown, then food, music, and vendors on the Ped Mall!
I don’t know why this makes me so happy but it does. I’m old enough to have grown up through the rise of gay pride, and had to be educated through my teens and twenties about my own homophobic conditioning. What makes gay culture special — aside from saving dance music from the Disco Sucks movement — is that Coming Out is the ultimate act of courage and honesty.
It means is to be honest about who you are on the inside to a world that may not like it. It’s about celebrating differences and loving each other even when we’re different. If you’re gay, that pertains to who attracts you sexually, but in a perfect world, we would all have the courage to be that honest, and to celebrate the ways — large and small — we’re all different from each other.
Photo is from 2007 Pride, photo by MattIndy77 on Flickr
