Pride!

It's been a while.

PRIDE!

It's something that you have to earn.

Don't ask me why there is no straight pride parade and expect me not to get angry.

Don't accuse me of being a hypocrite because we get to have "our parade"

Don't you dare sit there and insult me by saying that "it's only fair if we are truly talking about equality"

No! You don't get a parade.

You don't deserve one, because you can't be proud of something that you've never had to fight for!

You didn't have to break your mother's heart when you told her that you were straight.

You didn't put on a smile as your father walked around telling the whole world his son was dead.

You didn't get you a*s kicked every day for looking, talking, or being "too gay"

You have no right telling me you get a parade when all you do is rain down on ours!

You don't know what it's like getting up every day and thinking that this is the day you kill yourself.

You never sat through a sermon that did nothing but condemn every single part of you to hell regardless of how good you've been.

You don't know what its like to have your best friend tell you that you're disgusting.

Get back to me next time you have to sit in a classroom, having your teacher openly mock everything that you are and not being able to stand up for yourself simply because you don't want to confirm their speculation.

So no, you don't get to make me feel like s**t because you think "it's just not fair", because you know what? It's not!

It's not fair that you don't have to think twice about holding your lovers hand in public.

You don't have to worry if that hug lasted just a little too long.

If that song makes you sound a little too gay.

If you have to much switch in your step.

If you're voice is to high pitched.

If the clothes you're wearing are not manly enough.

If that girl you pretended to hit on is just not hot enough.

If that guy you just checked out didn't notice.

If your friends didn't see you looking.

You don't have to worry.

And worst of all, you don't have to introduce your boyfriend to your family as just another friend, who happens to be a boy.

You don't have to hide the person you love most from the people you care most about.

So that's why you don't get a parade.

You can't get what we have until you've lived what we've lived.

Author's Note

Be gentle.

Reviews

[DoormanDan]

This is the kind of fiery attitude that I respect on this website! I always love reading poems by people as brave as you are, and I can tell you that this is a spectacular poem. I can literally feel your frustration oozing from the words of this poem, and I really like what you did with the title. There was one line in particular that I really loved;

" You have no right telling me you get a parade when all you do is rain down on ours!"

That is well said my friend, well said. I personally can't comprehend why people have to hate on others just because they are different in a certain way, I really don't. Nobody deserves to be hated, no matter what in my opinion. I have many friends who are gay, does that mean I see them any differently? No, absolutely not. A friendship is a friendship, and a person is a person, regardless of what anybody tries to say. In my opinion, there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with being gay, and I do not believe that homosexuals automatically go to Hell. This is a fantastic piece, really it is :)

[Samuel Dickens]

I find this very well written, informative and powerful. Personally, I can't understand all the hate in the world--It seems so irrational.