When is the gay parade in provincetown

Pride, being one of the seven deadly sins, has good and bad sides to it. It’s appreciate patriotism. To the extent that it means self-love and self-respect, it’s necessary and a positive pressure. But to the extent that it’s exclusionary, about yourself and no one else, it can be hurtful and worse.

For homosexual people of my generation, pride was a key to happiness and self-fulfillment. It was the basis for coming out: letting the world know that you are gay and not hiding it. Not everyone who was same-sex attracted or lesbian was capable of “passing” — putting a straight face on being in the closet. But many were, and did. In the alike way that Jews might present themselves as gentile and “high-yaller” blacks might present themselves as pale — pride makes the very idea offensive. Why should you prefer to be anything that you’re not? It makes you complicit with bigotry. If you use the untrue pretense to survive, it’s sad. If you operate it to achieve achievement, the end result gets murky.

Hatred of LGBT people has always been belittling: you were seen as diseased, perverted, disgusting, fragile, laughable, pathetic,