Photo credit: Benson Kua
Pride Month, with all its Stonewall 50 celebrations, has passed. But there are still many Pride events scheduled throughout the summer. Kenosha LGBTQs just celebrated theirs last weekend. It truly is a source of pride to contemplate the advances we have accomplished towards equality. Despite the wave of current political challenges, LGBTQs continue to advance. Even soccer’s Women’s World Cup that ended last Sunday with a 2-0 U.S. victory over the Netherlands was a sign of the times with the two finalist teams recognized as the queerest in the league. Meanwhile, in the newly released movie Shaft, there’s a timely trans reference in its opening minutes.
But, while we enjoy incredible progress to pursue our happiness, other trends indicate a continued pouting insistence by some to be mired in unhappy regression. Even to the casual LGBTQ observer, they warrant, at the very least, an exasperated eye roll, and, at most, a concern for the nation’s mental and emotional health.
One trending example on a microcosmic level is the backlash over casting for a Disney princess, the mermaid Ariel. It seems some people are absolutely beside themselves that the mythological creature in the upcoming live-action film version of The Little Mermaid is to be cast as a mermaid of color played by actress Halle Bailey. They insist mermaids are white and cite science to prove it. The sun, they claim, does not penetrate water deep enough to create the pigment melanin that would produce a dark complexion. I’m not sure how they explain rainbow trout (except for the obvious). In any case, a Disney stockholder opined a black mermaid would be bad for box office and his portfolio. None seem to be concerned that mermaids are imaginary or that Ariel wears a very human contrivance, a brassiere, albeit one made with mollusk shells.
Speaking of which, on a grander scale, our national holiday extravaganza in DC featured a bra-less First Lady who apparently won the Presidential 4th of July Wet Designer Dress Contest in her soggy white, striped Carolina Herrera midi-frock. Pix of her askew, but nevertheless perky pair, caught the internet’s eye and no doubt inspired many a budding young Republican with a renewed interest in civics. Perhaps as ponderous were the photos shot through the president’s bulletproof glass shield with its symbolic cascading rivulets of rain flowing like the collective sweat and tears of those incarcerated in kiddie concentration camps.
Meanwhile, Boston has approved the initial application for a straight pride parade. Under the organizational moniker “Super Happy Fun America,” the all-white organizers plan the fete to revel in their straightness. One parody video shows a woman exclaiming “we finally get one day to celebrate the privilege we enjoy the other 364 days of the year!” Adding to the irony is that defamed gay Nazi provocateur, Milo Yiannopoulos, has been tapped as the parade’s designated grand marshal.
Frankly, with all that (and too much more to mention) reflecting the state of the nation, being queer takes on a certain satisfaction in not being like “those people.”
