How do I word this without coming across as a complete jerk, because I’m not trying to be one…
Let me get out in front of this by saying that I don't hate anyone, save a**holes and politicians (but I repeat myself). I've known too many good and bad people of every race/creed/color/religion/gender/sexuality/whatever to know that those things don't really make a difference at all. A**holes come in all sizes, shapes, and flavors. I will admit, though, that while I’ve been cool with the LGBTs for as long as I can remember (got friends and family in that group), there have been some things going on with some of them recently that has soured the milk for me a bit, and has given the community a bit of a bad name (but that’s a discussion for a different forum), and I wish more of them would step forward as voices of reason. I’m sure they’re out there, but may be afraid to speak up.
While no one should feel - or be made to feel - ashamed of who they are, I have also become vehemently opposed to any sort of "pride" attached to things like skin color, sexuality, ethnicity, etc.; things which you had no choice in or hand in. That goes for white pride, black pride, brown pride, gay pride, straight pride - all of it. The only thing you can be proud of in my book are your accomplishments and how you conduct yourself, full stop. Your skin color and sexuality are what they are based solely on chance; no one earned theirs. And, while race/religion/sexuality have been (and continue to be) used to justify awful things done to people, we shouldn’t tar everyone with the same brush.
But, on that same note, no one should be made to feel as though they have to trumpet their support for anyone, or any cause, and that to not do so is admission of being opposed to that person or cause. Personally, I do not care about anyone's ethnicity or sexuality. Here's the deal, though: not caring does not mean I'm opposed to you or don't like you. It just means I don't use those things as a metric by which to judge you, because they simply don't matter to me. I have way too much other stuff going on in my life - work, bills, car repairs, gas and grocery prices - to worry about skin color or who’s kissing who.
While you and I may debate on whether “Pride” has become political or not, I think we can both agree that the compulsion of another person or company to participate in something they are either opposed to, or simply don’t want to, is political to its core. The idea that someone should be compelled to participate in anything, even something you may think is benign, is wrong, and should be resisted vigorously. I like Christmas and I celebrate it. If I ran the world, would it be okay for me to compel people who don’t celebrate Christmas due to their beliefs (or people who simply don’t want to) to just put a small, harmless Christmas tree in their homes in honor of the holiday? It’s not hurting them to put up a small Christmas tree, so what’s the fuss? Whether it’s hurting them or not isn’t the issue; the issue is compulsion, which except in limited and extreme circumstances, is wrong. Just as you should be free to celebrate your sexuality if you desire, people should also be free to not participate in something simply because they don’t want to do it, and they shouldn’t be ostracized for it.
My problem is not you, or Pride in general, but that your OP sounded a bit like you were calling out WGA for not overtly displaying support for Pride. When you use language like “WGA is not the only company guilty of this, but they are the only guilty party which I have a forum account for,” that seems to imply WGA has done something wrong; that they are “guilty” as criminals are guilty. That’s not fair. Another thing happened in June that WGA also didn’t draw attention to, something that is more in their wheelhouse topically: The June 6, 1944 D-Day Invasion. Thousands upon thousands of men from every walk of life laid down their lives so that every man, woman, and child on Earth might one day live free from tyranny. I didn’t post about it, either. Neither did you, or anyone on this forum as far as I could tell. Should we all be called out for this by the veterans? Does this make us all “guilty?” No. Guilt assumes that a crime has been committed, and simply not participating in something, or not calling attention to something, shouldn’t be taken as a slight against you or me or anyone.
As far as I can tell, in the short time this forum’s been around, it’s been a place where pretty cool people come to talk about pretty cool things, and just generally be excellent to each other. No one’s made any nasty posts about others, no one’s openly attacked anyone, and the beefs seem to be squashed fairly quickly and diplomatically, without massive flame wars. We've all waxed nerdy about miniatures, complimented and encouraged people on their building and painting, without giving two flying-flips about each others' political leanings, ethnicity, sexuality, or any of that nonsense; this has been a place of real, actual, camaraderie and - dare I say it - diversity! In my eyes, I can't think of a better way for things to be: folks just enjoying each other's company with no strings attached.
