Liking Lanyards Or Why Pride Month Is Still Important
by Jeff Baker
This is a Pride Month like no other we have seen for over two decades. Stores that were flying Rainbow Flags are not doing that this year. Rainbow decorated products and shirts are absent from a lot of stores. Beer companies are not putting out rainbow striped cans. Buildings are not festooned with rainbow bunting. We feel like some allies have deserted us.
The loud, anti-LGBT attitude in the country has been given an imprimatur by an administration that capitalizes on bigotry, intolerance and hatred. But this really isn’t new.
Since the calls for Gay Rights became louder in the 1960s and ‘70s, we have made ourselves more visible and active and even prominent. The days when companies were not openly courting LGBT consumers are well within living memory. Harvey Milk called for a boycott of Coors beer in California back in the 1970s and the boycott changed company policies.
It feels like we are taking steps backwards but it wouldn’t be the first time Civil Rights received push back. Harriet Tubman’s name is being scrubbed off a U. S. Navy ship, as well as Harvey Milk’s name and the names of others deemed “Woke.” It all feels like a grotesque version of a Li’l Abner cartoon or a scene from “Cabaret.” It’s not just Gay people who are being deemed unfit for public consumption.
There was talk in the LGBT community last June about companies who only “show the plumage” of Pride Month to bring in customers and do not “walk the walk.” Other corporations did and still do have programs which are not advertised loudly but quietly, behind the scenes support our community.
So what can we do?
Largely, we need to keep doing what we have been doing. Hold the Pride events. Work within the community. Make sure we are safe when we do it but wear the tee-shirts and buttons proclaiming Pride. Be there for our friends. If we are open and out, stay that way.
I went to the Library today and when I got out of my car a lady in another car called out “I like your lanyard.” I’d been wearing my Rainbow Pride lanyard that I got a few years ago and had almost forgotten I had it on. I usually wear one of my LGBT shirts or rainbow socks but I had the lanyard on today.
These are all little things but they may add up and make a difference.
Happy Pride!
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Jeff Baker writes about reading and writing sci-fi, fantasy and horror and other sundry matters on or around the thirteenth of every month. He tries to celebrate Pride every month. He posts weekly fiction on his blog https://authorjeffbaker.com/ and wastes time on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jeff.baker.524042 Blue Sky https://bsky.app/profile/jeffbakerauthor.bsky.social and Mastodon https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@MikeMayak (as “Mike Mayak.)