Pride Parade II
I was asked to say more about the Louisville Pride parade of this past weekend. I thought about what the event meant to me, as a straight male. Lived experience means something different for each of us. We depend upon words to communicate our internal experience which is personal, intimate, private and concealed. No one of us ought to assume that we know, are in a position to evaluate the lived experience of another.
Standing on the shoulder of the road, a witness to the passage of waving, cheering individuals, riding upon parade floats, some leading four footed canine companions, it seemed to me that one thing mattered most: each individual was a human being, a maker-of-meaning, one of a kind — sacred. It is apt that respect, openness, solicitude of mind and heart be practiced to encounter every individual without exception.
Did Ludwig Wittgenstein once write?
Let us be human.
I cannot find the source reference, but it is just as well that I write the words here. The four words are to be sacred text, the great quest, the ideal of our horizon, bearings for our earthly journey. A future day is to come, one and only one thing will matter, that one is a human being.
2 thoughts on “Pride Parade II”
One of our Philosophy Bunch once posed the question, “Why do these people proclaim Gay Pride? Why should they be proud of being gay any more than I should be proud of being straight? Neither is any sort of accomplishment.”
That’s a reasonable question on the surface. I am unaware of THE Answer to it (assuming there is one), but a little thinking produced this conjecture: Judeo-Christian society regards heterosexual people as the human default and sole norm. Thus, folks who don’t fit its rigid heterosexual mold are deviant and defective, for which the hyper-religious remind them they are supposed to feel ashamed and yearn to reform to normality.
Yet most of them stubbornly persist in regarding their inherent sexuality as just right for them. Why should they feel ashamed?
And the opposite of ashamed is …. ? Gay (LGBTQ+) PRIDE! Your photos express that plainly.
Nancy, your reasoning would be endorsed by many. Christianity (Judeo-Christian society) is a dominant and oppressive ethos, on a number of accounts. And nothing is gained by keeping a low profile, by remaining in the closet.