Being LGBT Isn’t Something to be Proud About, but Individual Accomplishment Definitely Is

I’m told it’s “Pride Month,” which is a time when the LGBT community celebrates being L, G, B, T, or whatever letter you add after that.

And to that, I say…fair enough. Coming together as a community to celebrate your community is nothing new, and there’s nothing wrong with it. So long as you don’t force me to celebrate with you, or issue you the proper respect, “or else,” I don’t care what you do.

But one of the things that does irk me about Pride Month — aside from the hyper-sexual parades that I’ll talk about in a different article — is the idea that during “Pride Month,” people are supposed to be proud of being LGBT.

Perhaps there are many within the LGBT community who look at the term “pride” as a positive outlook on the self as opposed to feeling shame for their homosexuality. To that I also say “fair enough.” No one gets too happy hating themselves, and if you want a better outlook to help you deal with the challenges of life, I definitely recommend happiness and self-acceptance.

But for many in the LGBT community, especially in the activist circles, they mean that you should very literally be proud of being gay or lesbian like it’s an accomplishment. Like you did something to earn the title of “trans” or “bisexual.”

But you didn’t. The general consensus within the LGBT community is that if you fall under any of the letters within the lineup, you were born that way. You didn’t choose it. Being proud of being born gay seems a bit self-aggrandizing when you zoom out of the pomp and circumstance our society puts on being a group like the LGBT community.

I might as well throw parades, and launch massive campaigns celebrating the fact that I have natural brown hair, or that I have 20/20 vision. What if I threw a massive parade over the fact that I was white? People would say the former two were silly, and the third is the second coming of Hitler despite the fact that other groups may take pride in their skin color all the time.

But I digress.

I was born with all of those things, just as the LGBT community says they were born with their sexuality.

My question is, what has your sexuality accomplished personally?

The answer is likely nothing. There’s a very solid chance that your homosexuality didn’t help you land that big job, or accomplish that big project. Your own effort, and hard work did that. Your persistence and navigating yourself wisely accomplished this. In short, YOU did that, not your sexuality.

This was put very well by trans YouTube star Blaire White on Sunday.

I support #PrideMonth, but I don’t necessarily feel proud to be trans. It’s not an accomplishment or an achievement.
I am proud of my channel, the things I earn, the goals I reach, being a good friend and girlfriend. These are what make me who I am, because I had to earn them.

— Blaire White (@MsBlaireWhite) June 10, 2018

Freddie Mercury didn’t become famous because he was gay. He became famous because he made legendary music. Dave Rubin isn’t one of the most famous interviewers alive today because he has a husband. He’s famous because he makes interviews fascinating to watch. The same can be said of Elton John, Sir Ian McKellen, and Neil Patrick Harris. All amazing talents that, if you were to suddenly turn them straight, would still be amazing talents.

Being gay, lesbian, trans, or what have you isn’t exactly something groundbreaking or new. While our society is primarily dominated by heterosexuality, everyone from corporations to television shows make it clear that they are supportive of the LGBT community. Even Chick-fil-A’s CEO, who leads a Christian based company, makes it clear that they have nothing against gays and lesbians, and just hold a different worldview.

I’m not saying that LGBT members don’t still face hardships, and being a member of the LGBT community definitely played a part in shaping your life, but being gay isn’t exactly special in today’s world. It’s a sexuality, not an invention that improves the world like the car, or cookie dough. Having sex with a person who is the same sex as you isn’t worthy of applause. Putting on make-up and saying you identify as a female isn’t helping us cure cancer, or leading us to become a space-faring race.

Curing cancer or inventing the warp drive definitely is something to be proud about. However, if you did that, the first thing I’m going to recognize you for isn’t the fact that you’re homosexual. As I’m zipping around the cancer-free cosmos, I’m not going to be thanking the gays. I’m going to be thanking YOU. The individual.

You are an individual before you are a sexuality, and it’s the individual who succeeds, not the sexuality.

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