Like any other baby gay who came out in her 50s, I’m on social media sharing adorable Pride memes. This is like catfish chumming in the Redneck Riviera for homophobic idiots, so I managed to catch a few. One posted the classic meme of the month: an AI generated image of Trump wearing some sort of dark-maga Storm Trooper drag, burning a Pride flag, that reads “Happy Veterans Month.” I’ve seen this theme across social media, on sports team posts that dare post for Pride, etc. Triggered toxic-masculine leftie snowflakes post either the completely off-topic veteran angle, or its classic pal: “WHEN IS STRAIGHT PRIDE MONTH?”
Let’s do a quick fact check. Here in the United States, in the current administration by the politics of divisiveness and hate, it’s still true that: March is Month of the Military Caregiver, April is Month of the Military Child, May is National Military Appreciation Month, and November is National Veterans and Military Families Month. So there are four official months in our calendar that honor veterans. And don’t get me wrong: I don’t think veterans should be celebrated less. My brother is a two-time combat veteran who won the Bronze Star for his service in Iraq. But he’s as disgusted when people compare Veterans Day to Pride as I am: it’s just diversionary apples and oranges.
And it terms of whatever “straight pride” is? Well, our society honors heterosexuality 365 days of the year in thousands of different ways that would be impossible to list. Crying about “straight pride” is a ridiculous, homophobic, “all lives matter” fake argument of bigots who need to take a look at why they’re so preoccupied with the genitals of other people. Wouldn’t it be nice if people could either be an active ally, showing support perhaps for a friend or famly member who is in the marginalized LGBTQIA+ community and do your due-diligence one-time Pride/ally post in June, or simply follow the kindergarten rule: if you can’t say something nice, how about shut the fuck up and say nothing. Because, a straight pride flag, really? Have you seen it? Sure, hang that up. It’s just black and white stripes that essentially announce black-white thinking and zero range of color in your tolerance for anyone but yourself. Fun!
USA Today reports more than 500 bills targeting the LGBTQ+ community have been proposed in 2025 alone, about 2 in 5 corporations are decreasing recognition of Pride Month out of fear of retaliation from the Trump administration, and hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community, especially transgender people, are on the rise. Several countries have begun warning their LGBTQ+ citizens about traveling to America and in March, the U.S. was added to the Global Human Rights Watchlist due to declining civil liberties, in part because of the treatment of the LGBTQIA+ community.
We are traveling backwards in time when it comes to civil rights for this community. Trump is defunding suicide hotlines for gay youth; I lost a transgender sibling to a heroin overdose. When you create a culture of intolerance and shame, you endanger lives.
So in coming across these fake-Veterans Day and “straight pride parade” supporters, it’s helpful to have things to say, like some of these helpful tips:
1. Don’t straight people have 364 days a year of unopposed privilege?
2. Fighting for rights you’ve always had is such a genius way to keep things as they’ve always been and to never have to feel uncomfortable or experience change.
3. Isn’t Straight Pride Parade just code for, ‘I’m too scared to openly say I hate gay people’?
4. Where can I make a donation? You guys need all the help you can get with all the jobs, status, power and freedom to express your sexuality.
5. Straight Pride Day is like celebrating your birthday every other day of the year as well as your actual birthday.
6. Homophobia directly impacts the health and wellbeing of LGBTIQ+ people. Whether it be by you physically assaulting us in the street, making some of us feel so worthless and wrong that we feel we can’t go on living, or creating so much fear around what life will be like if we come out that we can't get appropriate healthcare.
7. If you want a straight pride parade, let’s have every one of you walk a mile in our heels first—try living in a world where:
• It was illegal to be who you were born to be.
• You could be assaulted or murdered, literally hunted down by people who’ve never met you but hate you for being queer.
• You could be bullied in any situation your bullies saw fit—then have others say you just need to get over it because it’s easier to dismiss you than to show any human decency.
• You could lose your job because of your sexuality.
• You could be disowned by parents, friends and family.
• You could get forced into conversion therapy, which has ranged from electric shock therapy to lobotomy. It doesn’t work.
8. Can you honestly say you feel discriminated against for being straight? Better yet, name one country where you can legally be murdered for being straight—we’ll wait.