Letter about Pride SF

I went to my first San Francisco Pride this past Sunday. The parade and celebration were awesome. I had heard that crowd estimates were well over 1 million. I believe it, because everywhere we walked for blocks and blocks we were bumping into people.

One thing that I noted, though, was the huge number of people riding BART home to the Dublin/Pleasanton station. I saw nearly a hundred people, who were obviously just returning from the Pride celebration, walk out into the parking lots, getting into their individual cars, and filtering back down into the Valley. It occurred to me that that train was not the only full BART train to unload its Valley bound passengers that day. Nor did every Valley bound person ride BART.

I don't think that I had any idea of the true numbers of gay people living in the Valley until that moment. It is such a huge misconception that some people hold that there are no gay people living in the Central Valley. There are thousands and thousands of us in the Valley. Especially when you consider everyone who did not go to San Francisco on Sunday.

I think gay people in the Valley might feel, at least in comparison to San Francisco, repressed and fearful of living our lives "Out and Proud." I honestly feel that it is hit or miss with strangers I'm meeting for the first time. They are either fully accepting or Not in equal numbers.

All of this has solidified the idea in my mind that it is extremely important to be Out to our friends, family, and coworkers, because it is much easier to wrongfully discriminate against a group of people you see as "them." The more of us that are "Out" the more everyone is forced to realize "Hey, my sister is gay, and so is my coworker Bob, and my best friend Sally." People will start to think more when they are at the ballot box deciding whether or not to vote Yes or No to a constitutional marriage amendment. We will be real people with real faces.

I will be marching in the parade on the 4th. Perhaps some faces I've never seen will meet me there to represent the "Thousands" of us that there truly are? Perhaps the constitutional amendment petition signature gatherers will not fill their quota at this event? Come out and be proud!

-Beth