Well, first, let’s start with what Queer Pride Isn’t…

It isn’t parties and dances where you shake your ass and have a good time, and heterosexuals come and gawk at all the queers, fun though that is.

It isn’t chalkings that talk about "love," quote the bible, or tell people "we’re here, we’re queer, get over it", although that’s fun too.

Queer Pride isn’t even about being proud that you sleep with, fall in love with, and share your life with someone of the same gender.

Queer Pride isn’t about a day, a week, a month, a parade, or any of those things.

Queer Pride is about the small things.

Every day living. Daring to live your life every day as an out gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, transgendered, intersexual, omnisexual, pansexual, and all the other labels we choose to use to call ourselves different, person. Being unashamed of the totality of your self. It’s about looking at those you love and daring to share a part of you that may make them turn away from you.

It’s about realizing that in order for your love of yourself, your parents, your friends, and/or your partner to grow and become fully realized, they all have to first know who you are.

It’s realizing that Queerness isn’t just about sex and whom you sleep with.

It’s about looking at the world from the outside in.

It’s about a clearer understanding of the world and how it ticks and what it needs to grow.

It’s about realizing that our Queerness colors everything we do, see, smell, touch, learn, and feel.

It’s about knowing you are NOT just like everyone else.

It’s about being glad you are NOT just like everyone else.

Queer Pride is also about the journey; the journey from the closet into the light. It’s about all of our paths from self-realization to sharing our completeness with others.

It is also about realizing our Queerness is a gift. And the sharing of that gift with others. It’s about realizing that we are not the products of our parents. We are the inventors of ourselves…

It’s about our unique way of seeing the world differently and never seeing ourselves as static beings.

Queer Pride is about reveling in our uniqueness, and to see that our uniqueness isn’t all that unique! It’s realizing there are others who are sharing a similar journey. Queer Pride is daring to love. Not finding that love in another person, no matter their gender. It’s about daring to love yourself for who you are as an entire, whole person.

Source: Stephen Collingsworth, Jr., Campus Pride, 2006.