Quote: “Every summer in the United States, the LGBTQ+ community comes together for a month-long celebration of love, acceptance, diversity, and unashamed self-pride. During June, events for Pride Month in many cities around the world commemorate the progress made toward equality by LGBTQ+ individuals, allies, and supporters worldwide (via Library of Congress). Pride gatherings are embedded in the complex history of minority groups who, for decades, have had to fight to overcome bigotry and be accepted for who they are.”
Reaction: I deal with bigotry daily. When allies get treated with bigotry, they shrug it off. But, when an LGBTQ+ person gets bullied for being a queer person, they develop mental issues such as anxiety and depression for being ostracized. Queer people like me who have bipolar depression, borderline personality disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety, etc. is because of the environment around me from when I was outside of my house. I dealt with homophobia growing up from the kids in my school daily. One kid, his first initial is J. and his second initial is C. bullied me daily. Well, one day J.C chased me into the Worcester Academy football field. He lived on the next street over from it, I lived 1 street over from his house. My uncle was friends with this kid for a short period of time. But, since the 6th grade when I came out as a homosexual, kids like C.O and his brother M.O had bullied me for learning to crochet, making friendship bracelets, etc. because they labeled it all as “gay,” which they used to mean “stupid,” which I immediately took offense to. I also was told by the guy who had the initials J.C if I came out as gay, him and his friends would attack me relentlessly. I came out anyways in 2011 and When I was over at the Worcester Academy Football Field on Thanksgiving of 2011, they chased me out of the Football field, J.C and his 15 friends threatened to beat me with my own skateboard, and I skated away from the confrontation. When I called the police, him & his 15 friends were charged with gang related activity for the amount of people that followed me and chased me out of the football field over at Worcester Academy, and they got suspended from school. They got charged with bullying under the Massachusetts anti-bullying laws via the harassment policies and guidelines. Since then, I have had the inability to trust most people because I was bullied so bad. I also developed mental disorders based on trauma. Not only did that happen, but I also developed issues with my self-esteem and had refused to come back out of the closet for almost 11 years since that day in my life. Had I not called the P.D that day, I wouldn't have warded off the bigotry that I was about to endure from a Baptist boy and his friends from my neighborhood. I'm not saying all Baptists are like that, but this boy and his friends were all religious, which is why it took me a VERY long time to accept that I am also religious because of the boys who attacked me viciously on every level with the intent to drive me to do unspeakable things and I wouldn't be here today if I allowed them to make me not alive on the inside, because I wouldn't be here if I had let them win. And, now because I didn't let them win, more and more kids are able to feel safer about coming out because of the fight and the struggle my generation and my mom's generation went through.
Sutton, Toni. “What You Didn’t Know about the History of Pride Month.” TheList.com, 31 May 2022, www.thelist.com/879964/what-you-didnt-know-about-the-history-of-pride-month/. Accessed 12 June 2022.
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