OutBoise Magazine June 2016 | Page 11

11  |  OutBoise Magazine  | NEWS OutBoisemag.com | Issue 20 | June 2016 Photo: Paul Budge If we truly want to represent our community, shouldn’t we be celebrating everyone? Every aspect? Even the dirty parts? There is NO shame in expressing your identity outwardly and openly. Sure, Boise - and Idaho, tend to be far more conservative than San Francisco, or New Orleans, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have the right to express who you are. Apparently, no. This is EXACTLY why you see people with “masc only” or “no fats, no fems” on their GRINDR profile. We’ve thrown ourselves into a world where no one ever fits in any more. And we tear each other apart for it. You don’t need to be “just like everyone else.” You shouldn’t have to be thrown aside because you don’t meet certain criteria that the world deems “appropriate.” This, to me, is unacceptable. And, going forward, OutBoise will not tone anything down for our readers. We’re meant to express who we are. We should celebrate as loudly and as proudly as possible. And we shouldn’t care how inappropriate something thinks it is. When we become this society that judges our own more than the rest of the world does? Didn’t we already have to move past this to come together to make things happen? I encourage you all, during Pride, to show this spirit by showing the true spirit of gay pride. Fly your freak flag out their as high as you can. Be you. Not what society says you have to be.