As a gay libertarian, I’m often asked my thoughts about gay pride month. After all, isn’t the holiday a celebration of the very group identity politics that libertarians seeks to combat? While some gay special interest groups will undoubtedly try to push their own agenda, pride month is fundamentally a celebration of individual autonomy and the freedom to pursue a happy life according to one’s own terms.
Unlike most other minorities, being queer is a profoundly individual, and often isolating, experience. LGBT kids are born into straight families without a support network or anyone to turn to as they figure out they are unlike most others. For this reason, a public celebration of the LGBT community is vital, broadcasting to the world that queer people can find love and acceptance if they have the strength to seek it.
This is why the act of being openly gay is so important. It was millions of gays and lesbians coming out of the closet and openly celebrating pride that caused gay rights to progress so quickly throughout the latter half of the 20th century. As San Francisco City Councilman Harvey Milk so powerfully put it in a 1978 speech on Gay Freedom Day:
Gays often go undetected in everyday life. When I walk down the street, a passerby can immediately tell that I am a tall, white male. If they look hard enough, they might be able to tell some finer details, like the fact that I have a crossed-eye. However, they cannot discern my sexuality. For most strangers, I likely pass as straight.
Straight people may be inclined to ask, “Why does that matter?” After all, sexuality is a very personal matter and perhaps rightfully should be kept private. Yet there are many ways in which sexuality is displayed in subtle ways in public life that people do not typically give a second thought to: a couple holding hands, a casual mention of “my boyfriend” around the water cooler. These are the realities of sexuality in everyday life that do not actually involve sex and, for many gays to this day, are unimaginable.
For this reason, a public celebration of pride is important to affirm to the world that the LGBT community exists, even if it’s not obvious in everyday life. Moreover, pride is a power statement of Western values of acceptance. As I pointed out in the Washington Examiner in January, there are 74 countries around the world where homosexual relationships are illegal — 13 in which they’re punishable by death. Gay persecution is a sad reality still in many places in the world, and pride can provide powerful hope for a better life to those who need it.
For the closeted kid in an unaccepting family, for the couple living a secret life in an authoritarian country, and even for Western gays like myself spending a fun weekend with friends, pride is an important celebration of the freedom to pursue the good life with people we love. That’s why I’m thrilled to celebrate.
Casey Given (@CaseyJGiven) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the executive director of Young Voices.
