Today is the Pride March and many will be marching rain or shine.

Columbus [Ohio] Pride Festival and Parade​ has come a long way! Originally being to bring awareness of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Community, then to tolerance then to acceptance and now to embrace that all should be proud of who they are.

A thought and something that I’ve had to rethink and understand better and that is of the interchanging of the word tolerance and acceptance.

“Acceptance goes a step beyond tolerance. If a sign of tolerance is a feeling of “I can live with X (behavior, religion, race, culture, etc.)” acceptance moves beyond that in the direction of “X is OK.” You can tolerate something without accepting it, but you cannot accept something without tolerating it. For example, when a son or daughter tells a parent about an unwelcome career choice, marital partner, or sexual identity, he or she wants that information not just to be tolerated, but to be accepted.” – [Source: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/looking-in-the-cultural-mirror/201402/tolerance-acceptance-understanding]

The above paragraph summarizes perfectly the struggles that one who identifies as a GLBT person has to go thru. If you have the chance to attend the pride festivities including the parade and show or watch on TV (I’m sure the “showiest”) snippets of the event; remember this, GLBT’s are individuals who are contributing members of our society. We just want acceptance (refer back to definition). Not all put on a “show” or will be contributing to the “show” in it’s extreme of fashion, but rather are just everyday day people who are doctors, lawyers, grocery clerks, school teachers, insurance, real estate, police, and firefighters. We contribute in making better communities, funding our schools, volunteering, and just overall living the life just like anyone else.

Pride is for everyone…..A sense of one’s own proper dignity or value; self-respect. At the end of the day we ALL want that ACCEPTANCE. Enjoy the day, mingle, learn, accept, and have fun!