Pride Month 2018 is just under halfway over, and all around the world, celebrations have been erupting. Hundreds of parades, marches, and demonstrations, and community gatherings have taken place, or are scheduled to. For millions of queer folk, Pride allows a safe haven to be loud and proud without fear of contempt and scorn; John Doe and Jane Doe can be as gay as they want, and express their gender in any way they desire.
But, what happens when your gender expression or romantic and sexual orientations don't fit into L, G, B, or T?
This is the case for millions of other queer folks identifying with the Q, I, A, P, or + portions of the acronym. Yet, hundreds of discourse threads and exclusionist theories exist in an attempt to keep Pride an L, G, B, and T prerogative.
There is no one identity meant to police the LGBTQ+ community with the right to determine who does and who does not belong. Pride is meant to be an inclusive celebration for every person who doesn't identify as cisgender, and heterosexual, and heteroromantic. Anybody who can't check each of these three identities, without doubt, belongs at Pride.
If you're asexual, aromantic, or agender, you are queer, you are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and you belong at Pride.
If you're bigender, trigender, polygender, or pangender, you are queer, you are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and you belong at Pride.
If you're gray-asexual, demisexual, lithosexual, or fraysexual, you are queer, you are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and you belong at Pride.
If you're genderfluid, non-binary, transgender male to female, a transgender female to male, demi boy, or demi girl, you are queer, you are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and you belong at Pride.
If you're biromantic, homoromantic, panromantic, or polyromantic, you are queer, you are a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and you belong at Pride.
If you're questioning any aspect of your gender identity and expression or your romantic or sexual orientation, you may be queer, you may be a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and you belong at Pride.
If you don't like to identify under labels, you may be queer, you may be a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and you belong at Pride.
You see, it isn't about playing a sort of "Oppression Olympics" to determine who does and doesn't belong at Pride. You don't have to be living a horrible life because of your identity in order to belong. You don't have to have been bullied at school or kicked out of your home in order to belong. You don't have to have had any traumatic event happen to you in order to belong. If you are a part of the LGBTQIAP+ community, you belong at Pride. End of story.
Each identity goes through their own struggles, and even then, experiences differ from person to person. A struggle isn't required to be a part of a united community.
You deserve respect regardless of your identity. You deserve happiness regardless of your identity. You have the right to identify however you deem fit, and to be an active member of the community built for people like you.
