Pride in Pride

Love is Love, no matter who is involved. So this is going to be more of an opinion piece than anything else I have done. Recently, my wife has gotten us both into the app Tik Tok. This has plugged us into the social media scene as never before. As my wife identifies as Pansexual, she spends a lot of time on the LGBTQ+ version of Tik Tok as Juliesauruswrecks I get to see first hand how these people react to life. To those that do not know, Pansexuality is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as "not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, or gender identity." This is just one of the many colors of the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

Most Tik Tok videos in this category detail people who deal with persecution for their sexual desires. There are also many support videos that can actually help people through these difficult times. One that has surfaced recently involves the children's television show Blue's Clue's.

The show follows the titular dog Blue as she solves mysteries and riddles in order to find objects with an interactive story. A recent episode featured a song with the letters of the alphabet. When it got to P, it said "P is for Pride" and featured the several recognized flags of the LGBTQ+ community.

This is taking Tik Tok by storm as people are pleasantly surprised by this. Not only is it because the show is for children and most shows do not tackle this difficult subject, but mostly because of how understated it is.

We have seen representation of LGBTQ+ people in media before. There are TV shows devoted to it, like Will and Grace, but for the most part there are not very much representation opportunities for the community in popular media.

Some production companies and studios include token representation, such as in Star Trek Beyond when Sulu is revealed to be gay as a nod to the original actor George Takei being very active in the community.

Others such as Disney shout from the roof tops when they include representation. The media frenzy surrounding a man in a gay support group in Avengers Endgame and a Lesbian kiss between two side characters in Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker fell forced.

Representation should not be a big deal.

Having Pride in Pride means supporting the people who have different sexual desires, identities and genders by hoping that one day LGBTQ+ accomplishments cease the be LGBTQ+ accomplishments and are just people's accomplishments.

This is where the Blue's Clue's episode comes in. It was not announced. There was no big deal made of it. It was just accepted as being a part of the alphabet. That make sit so much more meaningful when they are just treating such topics as part of normal life.

I am not a part of the community. I am connected through my wife and I consider myself an ally of the community. I have no idea what all of these people go through, but I can empathize. I can support them.

Those in the LGBTQ+ community are no longer on the fringe. They are not going to go away and they should not. They are as American as any other citizen and they deserve to be treated with the same respect and love that you would treat a straight person.

So hopefully Blue's Clues sets an example. Let's see more LGBTQ+ without having a big deal about it. Just a happy song, knowledge, understanding and more Pride.