I've been 'attacked because I am gay' and now fear my marriage will be outlawed. |Opinion
A lifetime Ohioan, Mark Hiser is a retired high school English teacher and adjunct college instructor. He currently serves on the board of Rainbow Dublin.
Stan Fulk referenced Pride Month in his recent Dispatch opinion piece, saying we should "work for social justice and celebrate the lives of all Americans regardless of race, creed, or sexual orientation."
As a gay man, I live in a world that daily celebrates and honors heterosexuality.
I live in a world where most people never worry about how they will be received because they are straight. But like millions of other LGBTQ+ people, I must worry.
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I have had my job threatened multiple times because I am gay. I have been physically attacked because I am gay. I have been chased down the street by someone yelling “faggot.”
I have seen friends die because straight people in power refused to say the word "AIDS" until they realized HIV could also infect them.
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Daily, I must decide if it is safe for me to be myself when around people I do not know.
I must worry if my marriage will soon be invalidated because I am married to a man, someone I have loved for 25 years. I must watch bills like Ohio House Bills 322, 327, and 616 work their way into becoming law so that the voices and experiences of LGBTQ+ (and Black) people can be denied, silenced, and erased.
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While we have come a long way in having the same rights as those people who are straight, we have far to go. Ohio still does not have a nondiscrimination clause for LGBTQ people. It is still possible in many places in Ohio for LGBTQ people to be fired, denied housing or service.
So, why do we need Pride? Why can’t we just have a Human Pride Month? Why can’t we just say, “All Lives Matter?"
Because we must remember our history and acknowledge our present.
We must celebrate our progress but acknowledge how much is left to carry out for equality and liberation.
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We must reassure our youth whose biological family threw them out of the house because of who they are.
We must tell our bullied youth who suffer the indifference of school personnel that there are people who care and will not harm them. We must tell our religious institutions that we, too, are Children of our Divinity.
We have Pride Month to say we resist attempts to erase and silence us, to make us second-class citizens. We have Pride Month to say we will not politely accept oppression. We have Pride to protest and demand a right to exist as we are and to work for liberation for all. We have Pride to protest, celebrate, and declare.
When we are fully accepted for who we are and can live authentically in every situation, then maybe we will not need Pride Month. But that day looks to be far in the future.
A lifetime Ohioan, Mark Hiser is a retired high school English teacher and adjunct college instructor. He currently serves on the board of Rainbow Dublin.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opinion: Is Pride Month needed in the fight for LGBTQ rights, acceptance
