The Definition of Pride

Happy Pride, everyone!

It’s hard to believe, but every year, the same gate-keeping, Christ-splaining argument about why pride is a bad thing makes its annual migration to the surface. Usually Proverbs 16 comes up, which says, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” What people don’t realize is that the book of Proverbs was written in Hebrew, and the original Hebrew word translated as pride (גָּאֹ֑ון - gâ’ôwn) leans much more toward the word arrogance, which is ironically defined as, “behavior that comes from a sense of superiority over others.” This is just one of hundreds of surface level attacks based on weaponizing personal religious bias that serve to divide and dehumanize.

To see Pride Month in this light would be like establishing a “Conviction Month” and assuming it referred to celebrating criminal convictions rather than deeply held beliefs! There is a vast and obvious difference between having a month to celebrate and be proud of something beautiful, loving, and positive… and some kind of celebration of arrogance about something unhealthy, oppressive, and abusive. Christians, no matter what your personal convictions might be, if you can't or won't see that difference, that's a YOU problem. You can and should do better.

At the risk of sounding arrogant about people arrogantly accusing others of arrogance, let me offer a definition of pride that is more in line with the spirit of the month. Pride happens when you feel safe in a community that is like you. Pride happens when love has no boundaries and conditions, either from the outside or within. Pride happens when an entire population of people who have been abused, ostracized, cut off from society, and perceived as evil, emerge into the light of what everyone else takes for granted…freedom to be who they are. Pride is simply the celebration of the fact that those in the LBGTQIA+ community are deserving humans, and that nothing can take that away.

As long as there are fellow humans in our community who don’t feel the freedom to be who they are, we need pride. Until there are no more senseless murders motivated by sexual orientation or gender expression, we need pride. Until you are no longer disowned for coming out, there will be pride. Until there is marriage equality for all, there will be pride. Until being LGBTQIA+ is not an issue just like being white is not an issue, there will be pride. Until then, we mourn, work, and celebrate toward a better, brighter, and freer future!

art by Sarah C.B. Guthrie

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