I Hope You Didn’t Just Adopt Rainbow Filters For Pride Month, But Stood Up For Them Too!

Pride month just went past. Did you adopt a rainbow filter on your social media handle? If you're cis-het like me, do you know what it means?

Pride month just went past. Did you adopt a rainbow filter on your social media handle? If you’re cis-het like me, do you know what it means?

“The voice of love knows no barriers, no gender, no ideologies; just a thousand modes of expression”

Thereby, if a man adoring a man is embarrassing, if a woman expressing her weakness for another woman is shameful, then I would rather say long live those unapologetic lives who not only stand up strong for their existence, but also proudly stand for what they feel for their choice.

Rainbow filters for Pride Month

The rainbow filters make the pictures, the selfies, the posts look so charming no? Looks so happening? The moment you look at that filter, you’re like – “Man! Wow! What’s that!”

The main significance of the rainbow effect on those flags and on social media, specifically in the month of June, stands for pride! The ultimate pride! So now if I may ask, how many of you just stick to applying those filters, but take a little step back while acknowledging those who represent the colours?

A learning for cis-het people

Actually you know what, it’s quite Ok to feel a bit awkward all of a sudden on encountering someone who says they are gay, or lesbian, or transgender, etc. Most of us who do are cis-het might not really understand very well, or may be worried about hurting someone – so often we end up being hesitant or stammer while we say what we want to. But once you put in some effort, you’ll understand that they are not different from us.

Ask me I’ve had a close friend, who later confessed that he was always keenly interested in men (that hurt me real bad…), and the reason we’re still in touch is his sheer honesty and transparency.

What real acceptance looks like

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You must have seen some soothing wedding shots of two grooms or maybe two brides isn’t it? If at all you haven’t, then you probably don’t know what a marriage of supreme acceptance looks like. Believe me or not, it’s heavenly.

Transgender women are women. Transgender men are men. Which part of this clarity do you fail to understand? How difficult is that?

If I can be super proud of the woman in me, if you can be truly proud of the man or the woman in you, then what stops someone who’s gay, lesbian, or transgender to not feel proud of who they are?

A topic worth discussing

I know these two are thoroughly different contexts, but we still have discussions or a separate section in news media for the miserable state of farmers who die of suicide in India. But how many times have we ever raised concern for the suicidal graph of the hundreds of human beings out there, forced to transform themselves into a ‘normal’ man or a woman by their very own people and the ‘very progressive’ society based on what WE think normal should be?

The only way of celebrating A Generation of Pride instead of just A Month of Pride is Acceptance. Accept with an open heart, that you and I don’t decide the language of love. What we are familiar to, is just one language of love out of a thousand. What we are not familiar with, could be a far more elevated expression.

Let’s celebrate Pride every day, not just for a month.

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About the Author

Shrestha Purkayastha

A 22-year old Media student, a writer, a blogger and an artist whose pen bleeds the ink of thought bubbles stuffed with a million inner voices. read more...

9 Posts | 22,923 Views

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