#  Celebrating Pride, Mindfully

     Details    Jill Richardson   ![logo](https://mail.citywatchla.com//templates/ja_teline_v/images/logo.png)         June 06 2019      [  ![](https://mail.citywatchla.com/images/stories/June-2019/046u.png)    ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/important-reads/17811-celebrating-pride-mindfully)

  [IMPORTANT READS](https://mail.citywatchla.com/important-reads)   - [  Previous Article **Ordinary Workers Now Have to Work Centuries to Make What Their CEOs Make in a Year** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17854:ordinary-workers-now-have-to-work-centuries-to-make-what-their-ceos-make-in-a-year&catid=9)
- [  Next Article **Are Republicans Happier Than Democrats Because They Have Fewer Choices?** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17807:are-republicans-happier-than-democrats-because-they-have-fewer-choices&catid=9)

  ###### Typography

- [](# "Smaller Font")  ****Smaller** **Small** **Medium** **Big** **Bigger****  [](# "Bigger Font")
- [](# "Previous Font Style")  ****Default** **Helvetica** **Segoe** **Georgia** **Times****  [](# "Next Font Style")

- [ Reading Mode](# "Reading Mode")

> <a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a><a class="a2a_button_print"></a>[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)
>
>  [Comments](#disqus_thread)

>
>
>
> **OTHERWORDS**--Happy Pride month! It’s June so it’s time to bust out the rainbows and… actually, I have a lot of conflicted feelings about it.

 Supposedly, Pride is when we all come together to celebrate queerness in all forms. Yet, we non-straights are not all the same, and many of us hold various overlapping identities (like trans women who are also lesbians, or queer people who are also people of color).

While there’s greater political power in pooling together in unity to fight for all of our rights, it’s difficult to negotiate unity within such a heterogeneous group.

Within the LGBTQ+ community (an acronym that gets longer as more communities make their presence known), we’re not all on the same journey. As a woman attracted to other women, and fully at home in my assigned gender, my journey looks a lot different from folks who’ve had to fight to have their very existence acknowledged.

Transgender people are fighting for inclusion and acceptance in a gender they weren’t assigned at birth. Non-binary people are working to live outside the gender binary in a world that wants to give everyone only two options.

Bisexual and pansexual people (who are attracted to others of all genders and orientations) have different challenges. They’re often invisible, because people think they’re straight if they date someone of the opposite sex or gay if they date someone of the same sex.

I support all these people while recognizing that their journey has been different from my own. Our need to come together despite our differences arises from our marginalization in a world dominated by heterosexual cisgender people.

Cisgender straight people grow up never needing to figure out that they’re straight, never needing to figure out what gender they are, never needing to come out to anyone, and never risking rejection or marginalization for being straight.

The world they live in reflects — and was constructed to reflect — their own internal reality. Movies, books, music, laws, language, and every part of the world around them says that a person assigned female at birth will grow up as a woman and fall in love with a man.

For those of us for whom that isn’t true, we gain strength in numbers when we band together. However, within the queer community, some groups are marginalized more than others, and other parts of our identity do not fade away.

The dominance of men over other genders, cisgender people over trans and non-binary people, white people over people of color, able-bodied people over disabled people, and rich and middle class people over the working class and poor continues even within the LGBTQ+ community.

Our challenge, when we come together to fight for our rights, is to remain sensitive to our other differences, and to avoid perpetuating the further marginalization of those who are not white, cisgender, able-bodied, middle class gay men within the broader queer community.

*(OtherWords columnist Jill Richardson is pursuing a PhD in sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in San Diego and is a CityWatch contributor.).*

*-cw*

  - [  Previous Article **Ordinary Workers Now Have to Work Centuries to Make What Their CEOs Make in a Year** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17854:ordinary-workers-now-have-to-work-centuries-to-make-what-their-ceos-make-in-a-year&catid=9)
- [  Next Article **Are Republicans Happier Than Democrats Because They Have Fewer Choices?** ](https://mail.citywatchla.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17807:are-republicans-happier-than-democrats-because-they-have-fewer-choices&catid=9)
<div data-id="1" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-emailform eb-1 eboxContentLocker"
	data-options='{"trigger":"onPageLoad","trigger_selector":"","delay":3000,"early_trigger":true,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":1,"reverse_scroll_close":true,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":10000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"slideInDown","animation_close":"fadeOutDown","animation_duration":400,"disable_page_scroll":true,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #1 - Global Email Signup Form","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog eb-formVer" role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog1" aria-label="dialog1">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<form action="https://citywatchla.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe/post?u=34d69f33624fd058ee9b56516&amp;id=4bfa422f51&amp;f_id=00d6c2e1f0" class="eb" method="post" id="mcform-1" name="mcform-1" target="_blank">
			<div class="eb-form-header"><p><img src="/images/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png" alt="be a city watcher" width="350" height="97" loading="lazy" data-path="local-images:/2023/06/be-a-city-watcher.png"></p>
<p>Sign up to receive our special e-news blasts on Monday and Thursday evenings!</p></div>
	
					<div class="eb-field-row">

			
			
			
			<input class="eb-input" type="email" name="EMAIL"  placeholder="Email address"  id="EMAIL" value="" required>

			
		</div>
										
	<div class="eb-footer">
    	<button class="eb-btn" type="submit" name="subscribe" style="background-color:rgba(93, 183, 93, 1);color:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1)">
    		Sign up    	</button>
    </div>
</form>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>
<div data-id="3" 
	class="eb-inst eb-hide eb-yesno eb-3 "
	data-options='{"trigger":"onScrollDepth","trigger_selector":"","delay":0,"early_trigger":false,"scroll_depth":"percentage","scroll_depth_value":80,"firing_frequency":2,"reverse_scroll_close":false,"threshold":0,"close_out_viewport":false,"exit_timer":1000,"idle_time":1000,"close_on_esc":false,"animation_open":"fadeInUp","animation_close":"fadeOut","animation_duration":300,"disable_page_scroll":false,"test_mode":false,"debug":false,"ga_tracking":true,"ga_tracking_id":"G-P16BQ7X1SW","ga_tracking_event_category":"EngageBox","ga_tracking_event_label":"Box #3 - Yes \/ No Donation Popup Box","auto_focus":false}'
	data-type='popup'
	>

	<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-outside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>
	<div class="eb-dialog " role="dialog" aria-modal="true" id="dialog3" aria-label="dialog3">
		
		<button type="button" data-ebox-cmd="close" class="eb-close placement-inside" aria-label="Close">
	<img alt="close popup button" />
	<span aria-hidden="true">&times;</span>
</button>	
		<div class="eb-container">
						<div class="eb-content">
				
<div class="ebox-yes-no">
	<div class="ebox-yn-text">
		
		
		<div class="ebox-yn-headline" style="font-size:22px;color:#888888">
			<p>If you only give once a month, would you consider giving to CityWatch?</p>
<p>Your support fuels our mission to promote and facilitate civic engagement and neighborhood empowerment, and to hold area government and its politicians accountable.</p>
<p>Would you like to help? Even if you can only give $5, it will make a difference.</p>		</div>
			</div>
	
	<div class="ebox-ys-buttons" style="font-size: 16px;">
		
<a
					data-ebox-prevent="0"
		data-ebox-cmd="close"
				target="_self"
		href="https://www.citywatchla.com/donate"
		rel="noopener"
	
	
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#2ec664;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Yes
	</a>
<a
	
	
			data-ebox-cmd="close"
		href="#"
	
	
	class="ebox-ys-btn"
	style="background-color:#ef2345;color:#ffffff;min-width:100px">
	Not Right Now
	</a>	</div>

	</div>			</div>
		</div>
	</div>	
</div>