Pride Month and the Military Are Not Enemies

Every June the same people who scream support our troops suddenly act like Pride Month and the military are at war with each other. You can set your watch by it. One rainbow flag shows up on a corporate logo and half the internet starts foaming at the mouth like someone pissed on the Constitution.

Let’s be real. Pride Month is not replacing the military. It’s not disrespecting the flag. It’s not erasing Memorial Day. If seeing a rainbow on a Bud Light can makes you forget the people who died in war you didn’t care about until it gave you a Facebook banner then you never cared in the first place.

Pride Month and the military are not enemies. The only people treating them that way are the ones who can’t handle the idea of someone else being visible for five minutes.

It’ not about veterans. It’s not about respect. It’s about control. It’s about people who want to pretend the LGBTQ community doesn’t exist unless it’s being attacked or silenced. People who can’t handle the idea that someone else might get one month of visibility when they already get the rest of the year by default.

You don’t get to gatekeep patriotism while ignoring the queer people who also serve. You don’t get to cry about American values while flipping out over freedom of expression. And you definitely don’t get to hide your homophobia behind a soldier’s casket and call it respect.

Pride doesn’t cancel the troops. But maybe it exposes who never actually cared about them to begin with.