My thoughts on the Vancouver Pride Parade and Festival 2012 #VanPride @vancouverpride

My heart aches because I can’t be in Vancouver for the 2012 Vancouver Pride Parade and Festival. It aches because I am unable to join physically in a celebration of equality, diversity and love. I am sad because I will not have the opportunity to share this day as it was our tradition, with my friends Mark Robins and David Hannigan and their family and friends and my own family and friends.

Vancouver Pride holds a place very near and dear to my heart, for many reasons. It is a day when my close friends go to great lengths to remind me of how much they love me and how much they support me, and how much they support queer rights. You’ll see… my friends are progressive, smart and loving. They are people who recognize how stupid it is that not everyone has the same rights in a world that was built, in great part by queer people. You love art? Admire the work of Leonardo Da Vinci? He was gay. Love reading? Love reading the work of Oscar Wilde? He was gay.

There have been numerous Canadians who are gay and have done amazing stuff (Mark Tewksbury, current chief of mission to the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games and an Olympic games winner in swimming, is also gay). Chief of states are queer (Jóhanna_Sigurðardóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland, is lesbian). Multiple-times-Grand-Slam doubles tennis winners Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs are lesbian. GLBT people are everywhere, and doing amazing things, just like their straight counterparts.

Queer people (e.g. gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans) can be equally or more successful than straight people, yet they aren’t afforded the same rights in many, many countries. There are 9 countries in the world where being gay is a crime punishable by death. Can you imagine? That the rest of the world thinks that you are a lesser person because you love someone of the same gender? That someone affords him or herself the right to end your life because of an act of love, a love that they themselves can’t understand? That’s just bewildering.

Pride, and especially, the Vancouver Pride Parade and Festival, is much more than a showcase of hot shirtless men with perfect bodies, boisterous music, boas and confetti. It’s a reminder that, while we have achieved much in GLBT rights, we have NOT won the war. We still have thousands of miles to go. It frightened me to read Ray Lam’s editorial in the Vancouver Sun:

Only one-third of school districts in British Columbia have policies protecting children from homophobia, most of which include transphobia, and Vancouver leads the country in reported hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender expression. We often forget that most of us live within an hour’s drive of a country where in 29 of 50 states it is just cause to fire a person for being queer, and the few rights queer people have there are slowly being challenged or taken away.

I have gone to great lengths to teach my students that being queer is ok, that being openly gay is ok, and that they should be able to love whoever they want without fear of being segregated, attacked or repressed. That there is no such thing as a pink ceiling, and that their sexual orientation should have no bearing on their personal success. I have also told them that they should be free to be who they are, and be valued and loved for who they are.

Happy Pride Vancouver. I am sorry that I will miss having the opportunity to celebrate GLBT rights in Vancouver and Canada, but I’ll have a toast at home. And Mark and David: sorry I won’t be there this year. Hopefully next year! Much love, always.

If you want to read a comprehensive guide of what’s coming up for Vancouver Pride 2012, follow along my friend Mark Robins’ guide.