It's parade season. The season of celebrating hard won freedoms. As a queer Nigerian American woman, the three weeks between mid-June and early July — when Juneteenth, Pride and Independence Day collide in rapid succession — should be a cause for joy. But instead, I look out at these spectacles, and feel cognitive dissonance.
"It's not shame," I say over Zoom to my friend Darrel Alejandro Holnes, who is vacationing in Istanbul with his partner. "I'm just not sure how to uncomplicatedly celebrate Pride when, as a Black person — queer or otherwise — in the U.S., the biggest threat to our life is this country."
