Can We Make It Here? Flashcards
(16 cards)
Party Girls: Happy Birthday!
Birthday Girl: Happy Pride! Find me a girl to kiss before my boyfriend gets back!
1: Malta?
2: Where the fuck is Malta?
1: Apparently it’s one of the best countries in the EU for LGBT rights.
Did you just Google “best countries for LGBT rights?”
1: You got a better idea?
God…
2: Do you speak Maltese?
1: Everybody over there speaks English.
2: You can’t just assume that.
1: There, see? Languages, Maltese and English.
4: Hey, you see this.
5: Oh God, now what?
4: Says here they’re passing legislation denying queer people the right to get a fishing license.
2: For fuck’s sake.
Women want me, fish fear me / women fear me, fish fear me / women want me, fish also want me / Republicans fear how much I want women to want fish. Or something.
5: Did you see all the corporate sponsors pulled their funding from Pride stuff?
2: Figures.
4: Yeah, The city Pride parade got their budget cut by three quarters of a million dollars.
1: Jesus.
5: Hey that reminds me, are we going to the parade or the Queer Liberation March this year?
Are we not doing both?
5: Eh, that always feels like we don’t stay long enough at either one.
4: Well that March is gonna be crazy this year, I bet you that.
1: I gotta look into pet passports, that’s a whole thing. Gotta see if my cat carrier is airline approved…
4: (insane headline)
Another day, another cartoon villain level of evil.
5: If you wrote this shit, people would call it heavy-handed and unrealistic.
4: I’m fucking tired, man, I’m so fucking tired.
1: Yeah I feel like we SHOULD do the March, but I just don’t need any more Communist leaflets.
2: I mean, they’re right.
1: Sure, but I don’t NEED any more! They’re all over my apartment!
5: This is the worst Pride ever. Drunk straight girls like her are still celebrating, meanwhile we’re all gonna get thrown into Gitmo.
4: They genuinely have no idea what’s happening to us right now.
2: You know it’s bad when the professors who study fascism are fleeing the country.
1: The ones from Yale, right?
2: With Yale money. Must be nice.
4: I saw somebody’s seeking asylum in Canada on grounds of being trans. Doesn’t mean she’ll get it, though, I don’t think they want a tidal wave of scared Americans.
Man, fuck this.
1: I know, right? It’s time to G-T-F-O.
No, I mean fuck THAT. I’m not fucking leaving.
5: I mean yeah, none of us are, we’re broke.
1: Immigration is SO EXPENSIVE.
Even if I could, though. I wouldn’t. They can drag me out of this city in a body bag, I’m not fucking leaving.
2; Dude, I dunno, this is scary.
5: It seems like everyone hates us.
1: I thought I could trust Target, now I have a target on my back.
5: Jessie got hate crimed in Harlem of all places last month.
4: And it’s only getting worse. How can we CELEBRATE now? When the world is like this?
2: This isn’t theoretical anymore, man, we are actively getting outlawed. Like, look at where we are right now, dude.
That’s just it. I am. (beat) Do you know what Pride is?
5: The first Pride was a riot, we know that.
It’s more than that. People ask “why do you have to be proud of being queer, can’t you just let it be” whatever. Why? Because the rest of the world tried to tell us to be ashamed. They tried to outlaw us. Oppress us. Kill us. And you know what? They failed. They failed over and over and over again. The first Pride was a riot because they tried to arrest us just for EXISTING. We would have been arrested just for leaving the house! And what happened?
1: Pride.
Exactly. We refused to be ashamed anymore. We said we were proud to be who we are. We fought the fuck back. WE did. New York City did.
4: That’s true.
2: No place else.
1: Eh, there were riots other places too. Like in LA.
2: Fuck LA!
4: Ah, ah, no, we like LA this week.
2: Oh, right.
When we were illegal, we fought back. If they try to make us illegal again - and they are already starting to - there is no place in the world I would rather be than right fucking here. The country may hate us, the world may hate us, but this is our home, these are our streets. We are New York fucking City. Pride STARTED here! We threw the first brick and if we have to, by God, we’ll throw the last. So why SHOULDN’T I celebrate?
5: …Because I still can’t get anyone to fuck me and Chappell Roan keeps blasting my ex’s breakup song at me everywhere I go.
Now THERE I can empathize.
1: What, getting your back blown out by a genderqueer top named Flux is queer liberation?
5: I can’t think of a better way to celebrate, can you?
2: You know something, you’re right. I am proud to be who I am. I am proud to be queer, and I am proud to be a fucking New Yorker.
1: God, you are so dramatic.
I’m gay!
4: I dunno, man, it still feels irresponsible to party right now.
To quote Dan Savage, “During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for. It didn’t look like we were going to win then and we did. It doesn’t feel like we’re going to win now but we could. Keep fighting, keep dancing.”
4: Okay. Let’s dance.
Happy fucking Pride.
