My mama always told me I came out of the womb worrying (and two weeks early, spoiling her plan for a baby in each week of January, so yeah, I'm impatient too).

It should come as no surprise, then, that I worry about my family (blood and chosen) and friends who are part of the LGBTQIA community, all the time, really, but especially during Pride Month.

Some have moved from where they were born and raised or that they adopted as home for friendlier climes like Maine and California. Those who've stayed sometimes opt out of public celebrations such as parades for fear of being assaulted because not all of us are accepting of who they are.

That's not something straight white men have to fear here. As I wrote in 2023: "People who have been historically marginalized--Blacks, women, LGBTQ, Hispanics, Asian Americans, Native Americans, immigrants in general, etc.--are the same as everyone else on the inside, but because of what's on the outside, they've had to fight to make even the tiniest bit of progress toward what others get as a default."

Fear is what motivates many of the attacks on "the other." Fear that freedom for others means less freedom for you ... but freedom isn't pie; there's plenty to go around. Fear of pronouns, which is frankly ridiculous because we (that's a pronoun) use pronouns every single day and have since language has existed (including the singular they, which you more than........

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