What #PRIDE Means to Me
Privilege, being comfortable in your own skin, and strutting to Todrick at Raincity's Pride fundraiser.
#PRIDE is about being able to be comfortable in you own skin, loving whoever you want me to love, and being able to be proud of whoever you feel you are inside.
Over the years I've come to appreciate the privilege that I have. I'm a straight white cis gender male, on top of that I'm born into an incredible family in one of the greatest countries in the world; but that doesn't mean I'm always comfortable in my own skin, and it doesn't mean it's automatically easy to be proud of who I am inside. I'm a Theatre major, computer nerd who's extremely introverted when not in front of a crowd - and if you'd asked me to admit that publicly years ago? It never would have happened, so thank you #pride for reminding me of the importance to love myself.
That being said, I appreciate that I will never truly understand how hard it would be to be a member of the queer community and to live in a world that would make you feel shame for being who you feel you are inside. I'm sorry that at any time you've had to live in a world like that, and though we have a long way to go I hope you feel we're still moving forward and in the right direction.
Today we did a small part to help: not only by raising $$$ for the incredible group @qmunity (who came in and worked with the @raincityathls staff on the importance of understanding the complexity of these topics); but by rocking our strut to @todrick during our warmup.
Why? Because we work hard for Raincity to be a safe space where people can just let loose and be who they want to be, or in this case throw fear of judgement out the window, throw on a little #nailshairhipsheels and strut like nobody is watching (even with @athlete_inside snapping pics). Thank you everyone who came, out and especially to those who stepped out of their comfort zone for a couple runway walks with me during our warmup, some of the facial expressions are everything I could have hoped for.
Be proud of you who are.
Be proud of who you love.
#LOVEISLOVE
HAPPY PRIDE 😘🏳️🌈 #rathletes #raincityathletics #happypride #vancouverpride #safespace #ally #pride
#thorsgotatheatredegree #thorsabigsoftie
