I can see you have the best intentions at heart, but I think you are missing the mark in the same way I did over 20 years ago when I was at a political summer camp at Utøya (you know where the terrorist attacks happened) and listened to a gay teenager announce that he was gay and everybody cheered like crazy.

I was 19, and utterly baffled. Why were they cheering on him being gay I asked myself? How is that an achievement? Mind you, I was not anti-gay. I did not think gay people where lesser than others. I did not have prejudice against gay people, but what I lacked was any real understanding of the struggles they went through. I had not reflected anything about the shame many young gays must have felt as they came to terms with being different. I didn't see it despite that reality staring me in the face. I knew all the gay jokes teenagers would make.

This was liberal Norway, so it was not like there was a religious conservative moralizing about being gay made you burn in hell and was immoral and sinful. No, immature teenagers and others simply thought it was different, odd and a bit yucky. Call somebody a gay in the 80s and it was most certainly meant as a insult. If you sexual self identity is synomyous with an insult, then clearly you will have a lot of shame to overcome.

Admittedly this connection took me longer to grasp than it should have. But I eventually came to realize that when gays, blacks and other marginalized minorities say they are proud of who they are, then it really is just a way of saying "I am not ashamed, no matter what society tells me to feel about who I am."

Self-centered? Sure, because it is your very own identity you are struggling with. Your own sense of self worth.

I can agree that maybe gay pride month should be broader in scope, but calling it "acceptance month" simply sounds a bit weak. It almost makes is sound like this is when the rest of us will simply tolerate the existence of marginalized minorities.

No, I think they have a right to celebrate themselves, and not merely be somebody we tolerate out of mind, out of sight. The loudness of gay pride, perhaps force the rest of us to reckognize and notice them, rather it all being on our premises: "Just behave and we'll be nice to you."

To be clear I don't have any big issues with what you write. I can see many of your points. I am just writing this to say that as a white hetereosexual man, I don't have a problem with gay pride.

Or maybe that is not entirely honest. I am probably too prudish to feel comfortable in a gay pride parade, but I am not judging. I don't think it should be stopped, limited or discouraged.