Portland has an awkward history of Pride overlapping with Juneteenth, and this year it happened again. If you had a choice of going to a Pride celebration or a Juneteenth celebration but couldn’t be a part of both, which would you attend? Why?
For me it’s a bit academic, living in Canada where Juneteenth isn’t celebrated (for obvious reasons) and Pride is on a different weekend anyway. But it’s still a chance to look at important issues of how we prioritize our lives and the causes that we value. I think right now I’d prioritize Juneteenth if for no other reason than the Canadian kids have been to lots of Prides and zero Juneteenths, but it would get harder to answer if we’d been to both the same number of times.
We don’t have this “Juneteenth” celebration in the UK. In fact I hadn’t even heard of it until it was mentioned here today. Seems like a good thing to mark and honour. But I doubt I’d feel comfortable celebrating it myself – it would seem like I’m intruding on someone else’s culture and someone else’ s historical milestones. Rather like inserting myself into Yom Kippur or Diwali would feel.
Then again, I feel pretty much the same way about Pride. I’ve never really had the opportunity to go to one before, but even though I could go to the London one in a few weeks’ time it really doesn’t seem like it’s for me. The LGBT+ community has never felt welcoming or supportive to me. Quite the opposite in fact – it has made me feel lonely, isolated, anxious and rejected. So I doubt I’d find it an especially edifying day out. I can see the importance of showing solidarity for people in far less tolerant and accepting parts of the world, but celebrating my own sexuality really doesn’t seem appropriate – it has brought me nothing but bitterness, pain and regret, so pride in it is not something I can really muster.
No, it’s not for people outside the US. I agree there.
It is definitely meant for African-Americans.
For my part, it is a celebration that has been gutted by the clause in the 14th Amendment and mass incarceration.
Tony!
Good to see you! Did I mention good to see you? HAI!
Yeah, the “except on conviction” bit has turned out to be a loophole you could sail a slave ship through. Still, Portland and Seattle have rowdy (if not super large) parades that people can watch or, if appropriate, march in. I’ve been to a few. One year there was a great food party at the end, people barbecuing in the park, but also food trucks selling things. I remember as a vegan I ended up eating curry from a Vietnamese food cart and I met this woman who convinced me to try dipping my spring rolls in the barbecue sauce her family had. Not what I’m used to, but good anyway.