The Necessity of Symbolic Acts
June is LGBTQ Pride Month. I’ve had several interactions in the last week with people who don’t understand why this is necessary or who are offended by the proliferation of rainbows around them. I’ve also had a couple of interactions with people who say that the proliferation of rainbows is meaningless and that only action makes a difference. It’s rather sad that in 2017 any of this has to be explained, but it does, so here’s my take as an LGBTQ ally (I hope I've used appropriate language throughout; if I've missed something, please know it's inadvertent and let me know what's better because I want to learn): Pride Month is necessary because people who identify as LGBTQ in any way are still subjected to discrimination, inequality, and outright hatred on a daily basis, often in very public ways: Marriage equality became the law of the land in 2015 here in the United States and just in the past couple of weeks in Taiwan. That makes right in the neighborhood of 2