I shot this picture last month, in June, which happened to be Pride month. These are my fiancé’s sneakers that have the pride flag colors on the bottom.
I know it is now July, but I just got this picture back from my lab and I wanted to use this opportunity to talk a little about Pride month and raise a little bit of awareness.
You may not know that pride month is in June because that is when the Stonewall Riots occurred. This was during a time when it was illegal to be gay in the United States, and clubs and bars were a place to feel safe for the LGBTQ+ community. These clubs and bars were often raided by police and the Stonewall Riots began after one of these raids.
I got engaged last month, something I never thought would be possible because it only recently became legal to marry. Now you may say progress is being made and it has, but it was illegal to be gay in the 1960’s and 6 decades later it is only now legal for us to be married.
I’d like you, the reader, whether your a married man or woman, someone who has never been married but hope to, or just someone in love in general, to picture what it would be like to rarely ever see yourself represented on movies and television shows. Think about all the love stories out there in the media, but they rarely depict your life.
Think about having to come out to family, which is essentially announcing the way you chose to love another person. I would just like you to imagine having to fear holding hands in public, or to be told that God considers you to be evil.
Now this post has nothing to do with politics. I only wanted to share in my Pride by sharing my personal experience and inviting you for just a second to feel what so many people like me feel everyday.
I hope that will help you to start to, or continue to treat others with compassion and understanding. Because we don’t need others approval. We don’t need you to be “ok” with our “chosen lifestyle” we simply WANT to live our lives and be happy just like you.
You may be wondering at this point why I am saying all of this on my blog. As I said above I just got engaged to my girlfriend. We’ve been together 8 years now and not everyone reacted in a kind way. In fact I had to come out to a lot of people before I felt right even proposing to her which was extremely hard for me. I just hope one day there will be no such thing as coming out. I hope one day we won’t have to explain why we are considered different to others, because dear reader I am sure you never had to break it to your family that you are straight.
Maybe one day I will share my coming out experience on here if that is something you’d like to read. Until then, have pride in who you are, stay motivated, and keep shooting.
– Aly
Congratulations!
Thank you very much 🙂