{"id":27015,"date":"2025-07-02T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T16:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=27015"},"modified":"2025-07-03T11:27:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T18:27:33","slug":"open-space-why-does-it-gotta-be-straight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2025\/07\/02\/open-space-why-does-it-gotta-be-straight\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Space<\/em>: Why does it gotta be straight?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every June is Pride Month\u2014this isn\u2019t anything new. Yet, I always brace myself for the butthurt cisgender men who come out of the woodwork to comment on Pride-themed corporate Facebook posts (or Pride support<\/i> from, heaven forbid, their football teams). The question always posed is \u201cwhere is my straight pride?\u201d and to that I say, \u201cHave you ever questioned why people celebrate in the first place?\u201d<\/p>\n

Contrary to some beliefs, Pride is not a time of year when drag queens brainwash your kids via storytime. Nor is it a time where we walk around suggestively nude, where our parades turn your kids gay. In reality, Pride is the celebration of queer identity and expression without penalty (or the hope of no penalty). Pride is an acknowledgment that we haven\u2019t had the same rights that straight-identifying people have always enjoyed. Pride celebrates the fundamental riots and advocates that have paved a path to revolution. Pride celebrates the first documented drag queens, of 1880.<\/p>\n

Colonization has played the pivotal role in destroying two-spirit individuals and any relationship that was not in favor or in line with business such as land transfers or having children.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This story originally appeared in our July 2, 2025 issue.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Stonewall Riots began in June 1969 and same-sex relationships were only partially decriminalized in Canada the same year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1978, legislation was put in place for the first time that would prohibit discrimination on sexual orientation for housing and work, although secured housing was and, truly, still is less of an issue for straight individuals or couples.<\/p>\n

Same-sex marriage wasn\u2019t recognized until 2005 in Canada, and conversion therapy was only criminalized in 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These dates were not that long ago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, no, I don\u2019t believe there is a reason for straight pride. I am a visibly queer individual who regularly gets instructed by men and even women to Find Jesus\u2014or else I\u2019m called slurs. In no universe should this be allowed to happen and have no repercussions. Why do these interactions need to happen? Why do hateful things need to be shouted at someone you don\u2019t know?<\/p>\n

The issue is not within our community; the issue lies in the lack of or squashed education that we need to have in schools. You are not born a homophobic or transphobic individual; you\u2019re raised this way. I hope every day my kids will not be bullied for having a queer parent and I\u2019m worried about the bullying they might experience as they grow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our celebrations for a month are not to rub who we are in your face; we\u2019re just trying to make you realize we\u2019re not a threat. We\u2019re just here to celebrate the rights we need to fight to keep every day.<\/p>\n

While the number of cisgender men in the comments continues to grow, I do notice the change of those who have found their voice to protect others and take charge in making the world open to a whole rainbow of beauty. The world is just a better place when we are accepting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every June is Pride Month\u2014this isn\u2019t anything new. Yet, I always brace myself for the butthurt cisgender men who come out of the woodwork to comment on Pride-themed corporate Facebook posts (or Pride support from, heaven forbid, their football teams). The question always posed is \u201cwhere is my straight pride?\u201d and to that I say, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,334],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-views","category-july-2-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27016,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27015\/revisions\/27016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}