Another Pride Weekend

Another Pride weekend has come and gone and I think it was just the ticket to re-energize me on continuing to work for social and political equality. It's easy to let the grind of working on slow, at times painfully slow, progress wear one down. But, the good news is that slow progress is occasionally punctuated by a major advancement such as marriage equality in California. But, even though California's current progress is still in question due to a ballot initiative, events like Pride show how far our communities have come.

Both marching in the parade and staffing the EF booth provided me with a firsthand view of just what diversity really means. People of all ages, ethnicities and religions crowded together to celebrate who they were. It was diversity with a capital "D." It was wonderful to see and provided such a large dose of positive energy that I can't wait for EV's conference in July.

In many ways, it feels like we are in the midst of a momentum shift and that society as a whole is ready for positive change. It's not going to be as fast as we all want and it isn't going to be as easy as we'd like, but it feels possible. And that, in itself, is amazing considering the nastiness of the amendment just a couple of years ago. The only real danger I see is that we collectively become complacent because it won't happen without our involvement. We have to build on that nationwide momentum and help move Virginia forward.

Congressman Barney Frank's recent comments about the gay agenda being the desire to "join the army, get married and raise kids," was, I think, extremely well said. While, as individuals, we may not desire all of those things for ourselves, we would all like to have the same options as other members of our society. Pride celebrations around the world are a great way to show this.

Let's use Pride 2008 as a apringboard to move Virginia that much closer to where it needs to be.