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Notes -
Beyond stigma, some part of Pride was also about Raising Awareness, and in the literal sense rather than the crude fundraising schlock of a Pink Ribbon campaign, and there are still places where a slightly more useful understanding and awareness would be helpful. I've had a coworker gently inform me that a pilot wasn't always a woman, and this was probably meant well than an intentional break from norms, but a lot of his description still at best reflected a pretty bad misunderstanding of what happened there. And events like Pride, rather than movements like Pride, are slightly more useful ways to resolve this than actually revealing my power level to a coworker. The trans stuff is more overt, simply because most people didn't know at all about trans stuff a decade ago, a lot of it's very private, and it's still something that's really outside the realm of discussion for most normies, but it's not the only place.
But more generally, something something parades are civil rites. Quite separate from any overt or direct political goals, there are benefits to having open-air Schelling Points for celebrations.
((And, yes, some people are using them to make often ham-fisted attacks on their enemies or to be annoying.))
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