It's June already and that means it's Pride month again. It's crazy how fast the time goes by. It seems like just last month that I was writing about this topic and it's been a year already. Sheesh.

I have a relative that is very openly anti gay. He's generally a good guy but on this particular topic he and I disagree. Big time. Often he tries to bait me into discussions about the atrocities of homosexuality and so far I've been able to stand my ground while remaining polite and non-confrontational. I'm sure that pisses him off. Oh well.

Indulge me as a share a quick story...

My grandfather was born in 1900. He was the youngest of 13 children and he was also the son of parents that were born as slaves. As I've written about in previous posts, his world and even the world that my parents grew up in is very very different from mine. Fast forward to 1971, the year I was born. At that time the civil rights movement had made significant progress and I was spared the pain of living in a world where open and rampant racial discrimination was the norm.

Many brave people came before me to fight for the equal rights that I now enjoy. Unfortunately gay and lesbian people are still fighting for their equal rights. As a black man that has directly benefited from the blood, sweat and tears of others, I feel an obligation to defend the rights of the LGBT community. For me to be pro equality for people of color while at the some time being anti gay, would mean that I don't really want equality, it would mean that what I want is privilege. Privilege is great when you're on the receiving end but when you're on the outside it can be awful. It's not right.

So for this reason I'm a member of the Human Rights Campaign and a proud supporter of gay rights and equality for everyone.

Happy Pride!