Uncovering Pieces of Myself: What Pride Means to Me
Letting my pen follow my heart as the words pour out, dance on the paper, and find a place to rest
Pride Isn’t an Event…
Pride for me was never an event I wanted to participate in. Even when, I discovered my true gender identity and sexuality, I still felt pride was a march; a demonstration where we demand equality, in life, in marriage, in society, and not what it becomes when a few groups of drunk and/or on drugs people join and start shedding their clothes as they walk to show the rest of us how proud they are.
Such situations, unfortunately, place us all in the same category and create a stereotype of what it means to be queer in Greece…
Pride in Greece
I’ve lived in Greece— a fully, patriarchal country where the motto “Country-Religion-Family” (a far-right motto) is supported by the majority — long enough to know that the more you provoke someone, the more they are gonna hate you, keep a grudge and when you least expect it, come back to take you down.
Pride month started as a riot and has become an all-day party with unlimited booze and drugs like the ones happening in Ibiza or Mykonos or any other party islands in the Mediterranean sea.
Maybe I am too rigid, some will say. However, the hate, hypocrisy, judgment, and backstabbing I’ve experienced since I began identifying as a non-binary person openly is enormous. And it’s been only a year…
It’s a Year-long Celebration!
Personally, I’d like pride to mean more than “let’s celebrate, drink, party & spend a week together”. If I were given a choice, I’d want to be visible as a queer person every day of my life to society, others, government, and not only during June because this is how it suits them.
I am not sure I can do it alone but together maybe we can!
We can make pride a year-long celebration of who we are!
