Why we fly a pride flag

To stop the normalization of hate

Reading about the wife of a Supreme Court Justice openly hating on the GLBTQ community and making us the enemy saddens me.

Not a nice person.

People like her make me conflicted about flying our pride flag at the house for Gay Pride month. Part of me wants to do it because I know it's the right thing to do but there is a doubt. This is the doubt of being brought up in a country that normalizes bullying and ridicule of children that are different (aka queer).

The statistics bear this out in a horrifying way. The rates of self harm and familial rejection among young people for being GLBTQ are shocking.

There are resources out there for young people struggling with coming out like the Trevor Project. They are doing great work and hopefully they can do more with greater visibility of these issues and your support

You deserve a welcoming, loving world.

This omnipresent threat of bullying is something that leaves permanent marks on a psyche. Even thought it is many years later and I did not have to deal with a terrible amount of it, the truth is that it's not the amount of the ridicule, but the fact that it happens at all, that leaves scars. Typing this, I’m reminded of the time I was called a faggot by a high school teacher. She wasn’t even my teacher but for some reason took offense to me.

Thanks to people like her and Ms. Alito, there is a part of my brain that is hardwired to look at every new interaction as an opportunity to be hated just because of who I am.

This manifests in multiple ways but the biggest one for me is that I simply avoid engaging with new people unless I know they are allies.

So I shared a little part of me that is personal and maybe TMI. We all have our struggles and the minimum we can do is be kind to one another and not succumb to demonizing “the other”.

The fact is that we are flying the flag proudly for the month of June here in rural NJ.

The deciding factor is that hopefully, in one of the cars that goes by, the rainbow flag brings a little hope to a young person who is feeling scared and alone.

It really does get better.