Nine reasons why there doesn’t need to be a ‘Straight Pride’

12th July 2019

Because apparently it needs explaining.

‘Straight Pride’ has been in the headlines for weeks as a group called Super Happy Fun America received a permit to hold their event on August 31 from the City of Boston. According to their website, they hope that the parade and platform will mean that “FINALLY STRAIGHT PEOPLE WILL HAVE THEIR VOICES HEARD”. Pause for dramatic eye-roll.

Instead of simply ignoring this childish, toys-out-of-the-pram, knee-jerk reaction to LGBTQ people getting more attention than our straight counterparts for just ONE MONTH, we thought this would be a good opportunity to remind our community and allies why Pride (the real one) is still vitally important to the queer community.

Straight allies remain essential in our journey towards equality, acceptance and celebration, but with a very loud minority of straight people clearly misunderstanding the purpose of Pride, we’ve collected nine reasons why a ‘Straight Pride’ is completely unnecessary.

1. Straight cis people aren’t being murdered for being straight.

With eleven trans women of colour already reported murdered this year in the States, and anti-LGBTQ hate crimes on the rise in the UK, we’re interested to know the stats surrounding anti-cishet violence – does anyone have a link?

2. Straight cis people can travel without fear of being straight.

Earlier this year, Brunei made headlines when they announced that they would punish homosexuality with death. When straight people are researching their holidays, are they also researching whether they’ll be stoned to death on arrival?

3. Straight cis people have always been able to legally marry.

Same-sex marriage is still an ongoing battle in many parts of the world, and there’s growing fear that in some places the new rights will be repealed. Imagine if the only cake-related drama at your wedding was the decision between gateau or sponge.

4. Straight cis people have never been jailed for being straight.

Being queer was criminalised until relatively recently, and while the actions of straight people are still punishable (unless they’re exercising freedom of speech by being a bigot, but don’t get us started) they’ve never faced imprisonment for who they love or how they identify.

5. Straight cis people aren’t called ‘sinners’ for being straight.

That being said, straight people didn’t get the cute pet names we did – some of our personal faves are ‘abomination,’ ‘demon’ and ‘disgusting’. And we’ve yet to hear a single case of ‘straight-to-gay conversion therapy’ being backed by religious leaders.

6. Straight cis people don’t face ‘heterophobia’ in the workplace.

With laws on workplace discrimination still not widespread, queer people still need to decide whether to be their authentic selves in their careers. There’s nowhere that stops straight people from working because they’re straight – not even Gay Times!

7. Straight cis people see themselves across all popular culture.

Perpetuated in just about every mainstream narrative, the myriad experiences of straight people are literally impossible to ignore. The same can’t be said for us, which is why we lose our shit at the very RUMOUR of queer characters in anything.

8. Straight cis people don’t have to correct people on pronouns.

Apart from the iconic ‘They call me Mr. Pig! AAAAAAAH!!’ scene in Lion King, straight cisgender people (or warthogs) don’t often need to correct people on their preferred pronouns – let alone go through months (if not years) of correspondence just to get a passport.

9. Straight cis people aren’t denied medical help for being straight.

From the obvious procedures like gender confirmation surgery, and even down to emergency services, LGBTQ people still don’t receive proper medical assistance on the basis of their identity. And don’t even get us started on how we can’t donate blood!