Gay Pride? How about Gay Shame

Ignorance is a prison, and a shame. Just ask the inmate on the right.

On my way home from work yesterday, I read the Washington Blade's recent editorial, Flunking Gay Rights 101, by Joan Garry, former Executive Director of GLAAD. She writes about "the most comprehensive study of lesbian, gay and bisexual attitudes and behavior to date," which was recently released by Hunter College. In this study, these four questions were asked to a sample set of gay and lesbian Americans:

1. Is marriage between two men or two women legal in your state?
2. Can gay men and lesbians serve openly in the military?
3. Does the U.S. Constitution have an amendment that bans same-sex marriage?
4. Is there a national law making it illegal to fire someone for being lesbian, gay or bisexual?

Guess how many answered these questions correctly?

38%. That's right, over 60% of gay Americans don't know their rights, or should I say, lack of them. Sadly, even in DC, the area of the country that is considered to have the largest concentration of educated people in the nation, I repeatedly find this statistic to be true. How is it that you can't swing a Prada bag in NW DC without hitting a queen who can tell you the life story of Britney Spears, but can't talk to you about the history of their own community (or answer the four questions listed above)?

Recently, there's been much debate on TNG about pride, and what it should mean. Throwing in my own $0.02, I propose that the definition include the self-respect to know more about our history, politics, and mental health than we do about celebrity, fashion, and our own vanity. It may require a bit more effort than just showing up at the beer tent, listening to a band, and grabbing a flyer from the gay church or a complementary issue of Genre, but ultimately, such a standard would make the word "Pride" mean something more than our capacity to have a good time together.