Pride month started yesterday. I’ll give you a real story on why Pride month is important. This is my uncle Paul. He was a gay man who was kicked out of the Air Force and JAILED in 1988 simply for being gay. In 1995, at the age of 34, he died from AIDS, which was ripping through the LGBT community at the time and our government didn’t do enough to help. Our country failed him, even though he signed up to defend it. I was only 11 when he died and didn’t really get a chance to know him. Now I’m 36 and I realize that I’ve had more of a chance to live than he did, and that puts things into painful perspective. I love to see rainbow flags and companies who actually support the community, but let’s not lose focus on what pride is really about. It’s about the people who are horribly mistreated simply for being different and loving the “wrong” way. They deserve to live and be free from prejudice. #pride
