Triumph

I was feeling a little flat yesterday. Pride 48 ended the day before, which meant all those months of planning and organising, especially over the past six weeks, was over. I often have a bit of a bland period when I’ve finished a big project, as if all my batteries are drained.

But Pride 48 is more than just a big project. Over three days I get to interact with a lot of friends I’ve made through podcasting, including one who was my special guest on my own show. I also get to hear a lot of different people, and all of that is a lot of fun.

My podcast is different than most of the others in the Pride 48 extravaganza in that I’m not entertainment-oriented, but mostly informational. I certainly hope that I’m at least a little entertaining, but that’s not my primary focus and most comedy in my podcast is unintentional, and at my own expense.

I know that some of my listeners don’t care for those entertainment podcasts, and some of theirs don’t care for shows like mine, but for that one weekend we can all be together and have a really good time, despite those differences. Actually, you could even say we’re united by difference.

Pride 48 is an event put on by GLBT and GLBT-friendly podcasters and listeners—who are, after all, participants, too. We are a community, sharing our voices, sharing friendship and moving relentlessly forward. I’m incredibly proud to be part of it and honoured to be included among such wonderful people.

Every successful community event, as Pride 48 is, gives a huge metaphorical middle finger to the anti-gay industry. It’s further evidence that no matter how many lies they tell, no matter how much they defame us, no matter how much they hate us and no matter how hard they work to defeat us, we’re not going away. Their resistance only makes us stronger and more determined and, because of all that, more successful.

The anti-gay industry will fail, utterly and completely. They’re on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of humanity—everyone but them knows this. While they fight only to advance their hatred, we fight for the right to be ourselves and for our right to love.

Community successes like Pride 48 prove the truth in the phrase that the bigots on the right ought to have heard sometime: Faith, hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

So that’s why events like Pride 48 matter so much: They prove that love is stronger than hate and that, no matter what, it will inevitably triumph. Ultimately, that’s what and Pride 48 is really all about.