My Pride is your Pride too.
by Brock Severson
This June is Pride month around the world. People come together to celebrate the anniversary of a night when the sissy street kids of New York took back their bar (Stonewall) from police who were harassing them for being gay. Most people are unfamiliar with the origin of Pride weekend. Just know it all started with some rowdy, fed up queers that decided enough was enough. Kudos!
If we’ve not met, I’m Brock. I coach at Alchemy North Loop, I’m a native of MN, I drive a Subaru, I love to travel and I’m gay. The gay part doesn’t come up too often unless I am having a personal convo with someone. This doesn’t mean I am hiding it, but rarely do I ask someone if they’re straight… so the tradeoff seems fair. I’m one for minimalizing a situation and to me, being gay isn’t a situation. That is until we’re reminded that it can, and still is a situation for many.
Over the weekend there was a shooting at a nightclub in Orlando. I cannot tell you the last time I felt so personally outraged by an event like this. Maybe it’s because I have been that person in the bar, having drinks with friends and can put myself in their shoes. Maybe I know the feeling of fearing for my safety for just being me. Maybe I imagine all my straight friends who have gone with me to gay bars for a night out and I feel a sense of guilt for bringing them into a dangerous situation I have become so desensitized to.
To this day, there are moments when I feel like I might be too gay for a place or situation. Where I might be too close to a male friend and someone will give me a look or snicker, that moment when I don’t feel safe. That feeling never enters my body when I’m at work, I don’t have to fake anything there. As a coach, I may come off as confident but that’s a façade. I’m really that dorky cross-eyed wimpy kid who grew up and found a place to exist. Striving to feel equal in a world I know thinks less of me; I stood up and asked people to take notice.
Now I get to work and workout with some of the coolest people I know. The ones who accept me for me and are proud of the work they do each and every day. There is nothing like the high I feel when I look to the person next to me and we are both equal, struggling through it together. I love it. I love it.
When you go your entire life with something to hide, it’s hard to open up and be proud. This year is different, this year something has shifted and it’s no longer passive for me. I want each and everyone to realize that I am proud not only to be a gay man, I am proud to have allies and friends that make my life rewarding. Please, show that same kindness to everyone you pass on the street, shop next to at a store or workout next to at a gym. That is what’s really cool.
Brock Severson is a coach and Studio Marketing Lead at Alchemy North Loop. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling the globe, driving his Subaru and making people laugh.
