delfin bautista, the director of the LGBT Center at Ohio University, gave this reflection speech March 8.
delfin gave this reflection speech at the LGBT Pride Week 2016 Vigil on March 8 at Scripps Ampitheater.
Tonight we are pride! Tonight we celebrate all of who we are! Tonight we lift up our queerness, our rainbows, our LGBTQ-mazingness… we lift up our pride in who we are, who we have been and who we will become.
I often get asked, is being “a LGBT” a choice? Many have responded to this question with, “Why would anyone choose this life?” or “Why would anyone choose the hardship?” or “Why would anyone choose to be discriminated?”
Most recently, however, I’ve decided to rant to the world, “Why the hell NOT choose being queer?!?!” I am not ashamed and there is nothing wrong or “less than” for being me, or being you, or being us. We need to take pride in our isness and should not, cannot and will not feel shame or have folks throw misguided shade.
I honestly don’t think LGBT identities are choices. However, if I could choose, I would choose queer every day. This is not to undermine the experiences of hardship that many, myself included, have experienced: discrimination, rejection, isolation, violence, confusion. But I also have done some incredible things, like getting arrested for civil disobedience for protesting anti-LGBT policies, getting to hang out with folks who teach me every day about beingness, getting to join my voice to the countless others advocating for "all are welcome" to truly mean all are welcome at OHIO and beyond. Also, it’s fun being a colorful thorn in the side of some of our student, faculty, staff and administrative leaders on campus.
I don’t want us to feel bad about ourselves or for others to take pity… hell no to pity! I want people to be proud of us and for all of us to pridefully chant: “We are here, we are queer and we aren’t going anywhere!”
Tonight, this week and other moments of Pride are not at the expense of raising awareness about the challenges and tragedies we have endured and continue to endure as a community:
- The murders of trans women in the United States and around the world
- The micro-aggressions that students experience every day in the classroom and other spaces on Athens campus and all OHIO campuses
- The reality that yes, we can get married, but we can be fired in 30 states and executed in 7 countries
- Folks in our community who are being targeted with sexual and other forms of violence for being LGBT, with little or no recourse from our community
- The white-washing and hetero-washing of the radicalness of LGBTQ folks, our contributions and our stories
- The kids who are kicked out of their homes for living and loving beyond the norm
- The countless and often unknown victims of sexualized violence who identify as trans or gender variant or queer
- The misrepresentation and otherization of our vibrant and diverse community in the media and other social networks
Claiming and reclaiming that we are pride is a re-energizer to continue to counter violence. We are pride and honor with pride:
- Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson and all those who refused to be bullied and silenced at Stone Wall
- The repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 2010 and June 26, 2015 when marriage equality became the law of the land
- Though we may have our critiques of her, Caitlyn Jenner has opened the door for conversations around trans identities throughout the United States
- Laverne Cox was on the cover of TIME Magazine
- Abby Wambach has a freakin’ Barbie made in her image
- Mya Taylor, a trans woman of color, was the center of a campaign for an Oscar Nomination for Tangerine
- Nike created a sneaker in honor of Pride Month
- The Legend of Korra celebrated bisexuality
- OHIO has and is and will be taking steps to fully live into diversity and inclusion: We have an LGBT Center, Gender Neutral Housing, LGBTQ Studies Certificate, Name and Pronoun Policy, trans healthcare for students, and we are moving forward with a new LGBT Living Experience and Gender Inclusive Restrooms
We reflect and we remember our heroes and sheroes and “insert-gender-neutral-pronoun-roes:" Gloria Anzaldua, Albus Dumbledore, Bayard Rustin, Ellen Page, Frank Ocean, Carmen Carrera, Langston Hughes, Harvey Milk, Alice Walker, Neil Patrick Harris, Zachary Quinto, RuPaul, Tom Daly, Laverne Cox, Audre Lorde and Margaret Cho. Trailblazers past and present, who spark and rekindle our commitment to embodying #BobcatRainbowWarriorFierceness.
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We take pride in our journeys of living and expressing who we are. We honor all of who we are: our bloopers and our triumphs as individuals and as familia. We take pride in our efforts to embody being a rainbow in the clouds of others. We take pride in our goods, our bads and our freaking awesomeness.
We are pride. All of us without exception IS fabulous, fierce, glitterful, amazing, unicornlicious. We are pride, we are here, we are queer, we have always been here and we will always be here.
Cheers and queers!
delfin bautista (pronouns: they/them/their) is director of the LGBT Center at Ohio University. Do you have a question relating to the LGBT community? Email them to lgbt@ohio.edu or oulgbtcenter@gmail.com; tweet @oulgbtcenter with #qaqueer; tumblr at oulgbtcenter; or post/message to the center’s Facebook page (oulgbtcenter). Individuals who submit questions will appear anonymously in our responses. All questions are welcome. Don’t hold back.
