My stepdaughter remembers it well — the first time she saw a rainbow crosswalk. She was 15.
“I was so excited,” she recalled. “It made me feel so good. I took a bunch of pictures of myself in front of it and sent them to everyone. I felt like, yeah, I belong here.”
I called her (now 19) last night to talk about city council’s recent proposal to paint a rainbow crosswalk in front of city hall. I wanted to know what she thought about some of the Facebook comments we’d received after we posted the story.
I didn’t intend to ask her about the “yes, finally. Yeah inclusion!” comments or the “don’t push your perverted values on me” comments or even the “what a waste of taxpayers’ dollars” comments. We’ve heard all those before.
I was curious about those who said, “It’s a great sentiment, but don’t do it. The crosswalk will inevitably be vandalized, and that will only make it harder, especially for young gay people trying to find acceptance.”
I hadn’t thought about that, exactly.
I’m well aware the crosswalk could be vandalized. They often are. Last year, shortly after the steps at the Brighouse Library were temporarily painted rainbow-style in celebration of Pride Week, someone wrote, “the rainbow is a promise from God, not an excuse to sin” above the steps.
So, yes, there is a very real chance that the proposed rainbow crosswalk could be vandalized. And if it is, I don’t doubt that’s going to hurt those for whom it’s a celebration of their very existence. So, maybe we shouldn’t provide a target for homophobes to spout their intolerance.
Before I jumped in on the subject, I thought I should check with an authority (as in, a gay youth) — hence the call.
“It’s still better to do it,” was her immediate reply. “And if it gets vandalized, that would hurt, but it’s always better to push forward and make a statement, even if it backfires, than to just not try. And a rainbow crosswalk is such a loud, creative statement. It says ‘we’re here, we’re queer’ in such a positive way.”
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from her, and other gay youth, it’s that it’s far more hurtful to try to protect them by denying who they are, than to let them stand tall, even at the risk of getting shot down.
Her other point was that while, as a queer youth, it would be hard to not take a vandalized rainbow crosswalk personally, that public expression of intolerance also shines a light on what so many queer people experience every day in private.
“I’ve lived a pretty sheltered life. I’ve had nothing but love and acceptance from my family and friends, so it was shocking to hear the hatred when I went to one of those SOGI meetings last spring. But that kind of attitude is out there. And we should know that.”
Being subjected to homophobia is never good, she added, but it makes the case for why things like Pride Week and school policies are necessary.
As well as things like rainbow crosswalks.
