I am a white, straight, cisgender female with an above average intelligence from a middle class family that valued education. I have more privilege than some white, straight, cisgender men out there. That does not mean I am not proud of who I am as a person. It does not mean I am not proud of my accomplishments. I have worked hard to get where I am. I have made some difficult decisions. I absolutely am proud of that.<\/p>\n
But am I proud of being white? Am I proud of being straight? Am I proud of being cisgender? No. I have done nothing to be those things. I was simply born that way.<\/p>\n
Exactly, you might say. People who are not white, who are gay, who are transgender \u2013 they were born that way. Why should they get to be \u201cproud\u201d?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the kicker \u2013 society has never made me feel \u201cless than\u201d for being white, straight, or cisgender. No one has ever tried to shame me, disgrace me, tell me I am evil, or responsible for the end of the world because I am those things. Simply existing in the world openly as white, straight, and cisgender does not open me up to legal discrimination or violence.<\/p>\n
But for people who are not white, are gay, or transgender \u2013 simply being themselves does open them up to discrimination. They have been told that what they are is \u201cless\u201d than others. They have been told it is shameful to be who they are. We have passed laws, not that many years ago, to deny these people basic rights.<\/p>\n
To live out loud, in public, simply as who they are is an act of defiance of societal norms. To say \u201cI am black and proud\u201d is to not except a society that has long held people of color are lesser. To say \u201cI am gay and proud\u201d is to stand up to a community that would prefer to hide you in a closet. To say \u201cI am transgender and proud\u201d is to fight against a world that would label you deviant and sick.<\/p>\n
Those are actions, and to live a life that is true to oneself in the face of a society that tells you that makes you less of a person is, in fact, something to be proud of.<\/p>\n
I am proud to be part of a generation that is fighting these societal norms. To be a voice for equality, and letting people live their true lives. I am proud to be an ally.<\/p>\n
And I dream that one day it will seem as ridiculous to say \u201cI am black and proud\u201d or \u201cI am gay and proud\u201d or \u201cI am transgender and proud\u201d as it does to say \u201cI am white and proud\u201d, \u201cI am straight and proud\u201d or \u201cI am cisgender and proud\u201d.<\/p>\n
That, my friends, would be an accomplishment we could all be proud of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am a white, straight, cisgender female with an above average intelligence from a middle class family that valued education. I have more privilege than some white, straight, cisgender men out there. That does not mean I am not proud of who I am as a person. It does not mean I am not proud of my accomplishments. I have worked hard to get where I am. I have made some difficult decisions. I absolutely am proud of that. But am I proud of being white? Am I proud of being straight? Am I proud of being cisgender? No. I have done nothing to be those things. I was simply born that way. Exactly, you might say. People who are not white, who are gay, who are transgender \u2013 they were born that way. Why should they get to be \u201cproud\u201d? Here\u2019s the kicker \u2013 society has never made me feel \u201cless than\u201d for being white, straight, or cisgender. No one has ever tried to shame me, disgrace me, tell me I am evil, or responsible for the end of the world because I am those things. Simply existing in the world openly as white, straight, and cisgender does not open me up to legal discrimination or violence. But for people who are not white, are gay, or transgender \u2013 simply being themselves does open them up to discrimination. They have been told that what they are is \u201cless\u201d than others. They have been told it is shameful to be who they are. We have passed laws, not that many years ago, to deny these people basic rights. To live out loud, in public, simply as who they are is an act of defiance of societal norms. To say \u201cI am black and proud\u201d is to not except a society that has long held people of color are lesser. To say \u201cI am gay and proud\u201d is to stand up to a community that would prefer to hide you in a closet. To say \u201cI am transgender and proud\u201d is to fight against a world that would label you deviant and sick. Those are actions, and to live a life that is true to oneself in the face of a society that tells you that makes you less of a person is, in fact, something to be proud of. I am proud to be part of a generation that is fighting these societal norms. To be a voice for equality, and letting people live their true lives. I am proud to be an ally. And I dream that one day it will seem as ridiculous to say \u201cI am black and proud\u201d or \u201cI am gay and proud\u201d or \u201cI am transgender and proud\u201d as it does to say \u201cI am white and proud\u201d, \u201cI am straight and proud\u201d or \u201cI am cisgender and proud\u201d. That, my friends, would be an accomplishment we could all be proud of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-equal-rights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/seattle_pride-e1578082679186.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p75MAh-2r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154,"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/erinshanendoah.com\/alienanthros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}