This year’s Pride month comes in the midst of an absolutely brutal and dangerous attack on the LGBTQIA+ community. The right’s unfounded moral panic of the year has focused in on trans youth and the “gay agenda” “forcing” children to come out or transition or whatever they deem sinfully devious. I imagine in their perfect hetero-cis world, cis-boys will be required to play full-contact football or work in coal mines, and cis-girls must enter kiddie beauty pageants before they have their adult teeth.
Conservatives have criminalized drag performances, cut off people from life-saving gender-affirming care, and outlawed books that celebrate lives outside of the white picket fence they’re shooting Bud Light beer cans inside of. Speaking of, corporations like Bud Light and Target have cowered to the demands of close-minded bigots who’ve called to boycott them for supporting LGBTQIA+ creators and lifestyles. It’s pathetic and it’s also frightening.
As a bisexual, it’s my God-given right to contain contradicting multitudes, and I’m choosing to temporarily focus on the funny and humorous side of Pride month this year instead of the horrors. This is an ongoing collection of what’s making me laugh—be it absolutely misguided corporate branding, delightfully earnest pride posts from the LGBTVIPs I follow on Instagram, or vaguely queer content that makes me tilt my head and say, “Sure, that counts!” Some of these are “I love it!” laughs while others are, “You’re so stupid, you stupid, evil company!” laughs. This pride month I’m respecting all reasons for laughing, laughing, laughing, which first brings us to....